(Story by Stephen McDaniel)
Regional play has finally arrived, and the second-ranked Ankeny Centennial volleyball team couldn’t have asked for a much better start to its postseason run.
The top-seeded Jaguars made quick work of CIML Conference foe Urbandale during a Class 5A Region 1 semifinal on Thursday, sweeping the J-Hawks by scores of 25-10, 25-9, 25-10.
“I thought we looked good,” said Centennial coach Jessica Rinehart, whose team also swept Urbandale on Sept. 10 en route to the league crown. “We had good tempo on our side, we played pretty clean, and this is exactly how I was hoping we would look.”
The Jaguars (30-4) didn’t trail at any point in the matchup and held the visitors to 10 or fewer points in all three sets.
Centennial came out of the gates strong and quickly built up leads in each set. A couple of big runs helped the Jaguars pull away to double-digit leads as they cruised to the victory.
One of Urbandale’s best runs came late in the first set when the J-Hawks reeled off four straight points. But it didn’t put much of a dent in their 21-8 deficit, and Centennial then closed out the set with a 4-2 run.
The Jaguars jumped out to a 13-3 lead in the second set, and outside of a couple points strung together by Urbandale, cruised to another easy win.
The J-Hawks (4-30) managed to trade a couple of points with Centennial in the third set, but with it being a 10-point lead favoring the Jaguars, it was only a matter of time before they separated and closed out the set for the sweep.
“It’s more about how you’re playing at this time of the year than what’s (happening) on the other side of the net in these first rounds,” Rinehart said. “I thought the way we played, the way we came out, the way we approached the whole night, we had great energy and we really took care of business.”
The Jaguars found success attacking from all areas on the court with eight different players combining for their 39 kills as a team. Delaney Miller led the way with nine kills, while Tatem Schmidt and Jaeden Pratt followed with seven and six kills, respectively. Schmidt also recorded 15 assists.
Maegen Cheeseman tallied five kills and a team-high 16 assists. Mady Ott and Finley Greiner each added four kills each.
On top of firing on all cylinders offensively, the Jaguars were serving the ball well with Cheeseman, Miller, Mya Lei-Butters and Ellie Pollock combining for 13 aces. Centennial had a .932 serve efficiency as a team.
Prior to the match, the Jaguars dropped down from their No. 1 ranking in the state that they’ve held for a large chunk of the season.
Centennial held the top spot in the Class 5A rankings for five weeks ranging from Sept. 12 to Oct. 9. In the final rankings, Pleasant Valley jumped up to No. 1 after a victory over the Jaguars in the semifinals of the Westside Invitational on Oct. 12 at Cedar Rapids Jefferson.
Yet, the Jaguars aren’t bothered by entering postseason play without the No. 1 ranking they’ve held for so long.
In fact, it may turn out to be a blessing in disguise.
“We’ve actually never been No. 1 down there, and we’ve won (state) four times,” Rinehart said. “So we enjoy not being No. 1. It gives you something to chase. So when (Pleasant Valley took over as No. 1), it wasn’t a big deal either way. To win at state, you have to play three great matches against great competition.”
Centennial previously won four state championships in the span of five years under Rinehart. Three of the four title runs came as the No. 2 team.
Ranked No. 2 going into the 2014 state tournament, Centennial swept No. 1 Bettendorf for the first of three consecutive state championships. The Jaguars were again ranked No. 2 when they closed out the threepeat by sweeping No. 1 Cedar Falls in 2016.
Centennial came back two seasons later to beat No. 1 Cedar Falls, 3-1, as the No. 2 team during the 2018 season.
In 2015, the Jaguars were ranked No. 7 and proceeded to knock off No. 5 Johnston and No. 12 Dubuque Hempstead before beating No. 2 Bettendorf for the crown.
But before the Centennial players can even think about the state tournament, they still have one more hurdle ahead of them in the regional final on Tuesday.
The Jaguars will host Ottumwa Bulldogs (31-6) at 7 p.m. The Bulldogs swept Des Moines Roosevelt in the other regional semifinal.
“One step closer,” Rinehart said. “We drew on our whiteboard each step. So we checked one off tonight and got another big one on Tuesday.”
