The Ankeny volleyball team got the rematch that many of the Hawkettes wanted.
After sweeping visiting Iowa City Liberty in a Class 5A regional final on Tuesday, seventh-ranked Ankeny will face No. 2 Ankeny Centennial in the quarterfinals of the state tournament on Monday at Xtream Arena in Coralville, beginning at 12:25 p.m.
“I would love to go against Centennial again,” Ankeny setter Cloey Wiederin said before the matchups were determined. “We have the energy, and we know we can beat them. We just have to bring the energy.”
The Hawkettes (24-14) brought plenty of energy on Tuesday. They posted a 25-22, 25-16, 25-20 win, ending No. 14 Liberty’s season at 19-22.
Ankeny defeated the Lightning for the third time in four meetings this season.
“We just had to believe that we could do it, because sometimes we have doubted ourselves,” said Ankeny junior Reagan Hanfelt. “We just really believed in ourselves, and it was a great outcome.”
Liberty, the defending state champion, had won the last meeting against the Hawkettes at the Waverly-Shell Rock Invitational on Sept. 30.
“We spent a lot of time preparing for their offense and what to expect with their hitters and who to lock in on, and the girls did it,” said Ankeny coach Liz Baethke. “We shut them down, and we were in a great rhythm and we kept sticking it to them.”
There were 10 ties and five lead changes in the first set before Ankeny scored the last four points to erase a 22-21 deficit. Maya Ridgeway had a kill to tie the score, Kamryn Scheib followed with two more kills, and then Ava Wille got a block to close out the set.
“I think our serve receive and just executing was the key,” said Ankeny libero Baileigh Carlsen. “During the first set you could tell we were getting down because we weren’t executing. We weren’t having good passes. But once we perfected that, it was a good day for us.”
In Set 2, Ankeny used a 7-2 run to break away from a 4-4 tie. Wiederin later served back-to-back aces to extend the Hawkettes’ lead to 17-10.
“In practice, we tried to move around the passers (with our serves),” Wiederin said. “They pull a few people for two passers so we tried to hit the seams and tried to get as many aces as possible.”
Liberty jumped out to a 7-3 lead in Set 3 before Ankeny rallied. The Hawkettes later went on a 12-2 run to build a 22-15 advantage.
Wiederin served an ace to help ignite the run, then had another one overruled by the officials.
“That definitely gave us the energy to really push through and to capitalize on that energy,” Wiederin said.
Ankeny then scored the next nine points and eventually closed out the match on a kill by Wille, who sat out the regional semifinal against Urbandale on Thursday due to a knee injury.
“(My knee) is still not great, but you’ve just got to push through,” Wille said. “It’s my senior year.”
The Hawkettes outhit Liberty by a .300 to .133 margin. Asta Hildebrand had a match-high 15 kills for the Lightning, but Ankeny’s balanced attack proved to be too much.
“I felt like tonight we were back to somewhat of a normal lineup,” Baethke said. “We were locked in, and we executed our game plan.”
Scheib finished with 11 kills and three aces. She completed all 20 of her serves.
Hanfelt contributed nine kills and three blocks while hitting .444 on the night.
“I’m super excited,” Hanfelt said. “I’m just really proud of our team for that effort. That was amazing.”
Wille had eight kills and three blocks, while Ridgeway also had eight kills. Olivia Eike chipped in six kills, and Ady Brecht added three blocks.
Wiederin racked up 19 assists and four aces. Lauren Dockendorff added 15 assists.
“It feels so great,” Wiederin said. “I’m so excited to be with our team and to have this opportunity to experience the great atmosphere at state.”
Carlsen led Ankeny’s defensive effort with 19 digs.
“I feel like after last year we have some unfinished business at state,” Carlsen said.
The Hawkettes were ranked second and took a 17-match winning streak into last year’s tournament, but were upset by Valley in the quarterfinals. Now, Carlsen and her teammates will try to pull off an upset of their own.
Ankeny lost both meetings against Centennial (30-6) during the regular season.
“I think that our team is definitely prepared, and we are super excited for it,” Hanfelt said. “I know we haven’t had the same lineup all season. I just think it’s definitely made us stronger because even in practice we’ll have somebody out, but everybody can step in and just really contribute.”
Wille said the Hawkettes have learned to deal with adversity by just going with the flow.
“All the girls on this team have so much talent, and I really believe in every single one of them,” she said. “I think we can go really far this year. We’ll see what happens, I guess.”
Six of the eight teams in the Class 5A field are from the CIML Conference. Baethke said her squad has faced strong competition all season.
“I feel like everything we’ve gone through has toughened us up for any situation,” she said. “We weren’t great coming out of the gate, but we’re sprinting to the finish.”
Carlsen said the Hawkettes are capable of making a deep run in the tournament–despite their No. 7 seed.
“I think if we play our best game, we can beat anybody,” she said.
