The Ankeny Centennial volleyball team finally got over the hump.
The second-ranked Jaguars advanced to the Class 5A championship match for the first time since 2018 with a sweep over No. 7 Valley on Wednesday at Xtream Arena in Coralville. They had lost in the semifinal round in each of the last three years.
“It feels great,” Centennial coach Jessica Rinehart said after her team’s 25-18, 25-19, 25-20 victory. “It’s hard to do. We’ve been down here enough to know that, so I was really proud of our girls.”
It was the 12th straight win and the fourth consecutive postseason sweep for Centennial (34-5), which outhit Valley by a .196 to .110 margin. The Tigers finished the season at 28-13.
“I’m so excited,” said Centennial junior Sophia Heither. “We’ve worked so hard for this.”
Heither and Tatem Schmidt each had eight kills and six blocks to lead the Jaguars, who defeated Valley for the third time this season. The Tigers had knocked off No. 3 Pleasant Valley, the defending champion, in Monday’s quarterfinals.
“We were confident, but we knew they were going to send some stuff over and we knew we had to stay scrappy,” said Schmidt. “They were going to keep the play going, so we had to be ready.”
Valley had pushed the Jaguars to a fifth set in the last meeting on Sept. 18 at Centennial, but that match came just two days after Rinehart’s team posted an emotional sweep over rival Dowling Catholic.
“I just thought we needed to play our game,” Rinehart said.
The Jaguars overcame an early 4-2 deficit in Set 1 with a 5-0 run. Heither sparked the run with a kill.
“We just had to stay super disciplined, because Valley is a super scrappy team,” Heither said. “I knew we had to play our long game and just stick out those long points, because I think our long ball beats everyone’s long ball at the end of the day. I think we did a really great job of executing that.”
The Tigers later used a 5-0 run of their own to cut Centennial’s lead to 15-13 before Heither smashed a kill and Kaelyn Rinehart had a pair of aces in a 4-0 run for the Jaguars, who eventually closed out the set with another 4-0 run that consisted of two Maegan Cheeseman kills and two Ellie Pollock aces.
Schmidt had two of her 14 assists on the kills by Cheeseman, including one to close out the set.
“I have faith in my hitters,” Schmidt said. “I’m just going to throw a ball up, and they’re going to put it away. I had trust in them that they knew what they were doing.”
Centennial led all the way in Set 2. The Jaguars got a kill from Heither to ignite a 7-4 run that closed it out.
There were six ties and two lead changes in Set 3. Valley trailed by just 8-7 before Heither pounded a kill to spark another run by the Jaguars, who reeled off nine straight points to build a 17-7 advantage.
“We just had to stay confident and take those big swings when we needed them,” Heither said.
Valley battled back, though, and later used a 6-0 run to close the gap to 21-20. The Tigers started that run with three consecutive blocks.
Rinehart then elected to put senior Adilyne Reyes back onto the court. After a kill by Mady Ott ended Valley’s run, Reyes followed with her second kill of the day to help the Jaguars close out the match.
“That was good,” Rinehart said. “I do rely on my gut sometimes. Sometimes it’s just the flow of the match. (Reyes) hadn’t done anything wrong to get subbed out, but we were kind of flowing so we just left it. But then I was like, ‘We need her energy. Get back out there.’ And she came through, and I’m really happy for her to have that moment. She gives us good vibes.”
Reyes’ energy clearly rubbed off on her teammates.
“She really fires us up,” Schmidt said. “We love it, and we all feed off of it.”
Another senior, defensive specialist Nora Bockes, served the last three points. She kept the play alive multiple times on match point before Valley was unable to get the ball back over the net.
“I knew if we played great ball, the result would take care of itself,” Rinehart said.
Pollock had seven kills and three aces for the Jaguars. Ott chipped in six kills, while Cheeseman added five kills, 15 assists and 16 digs.
Rinehart completed all 19 of her serves and had three aces. Mya Lei-Butters racked up 17 digs.
The Jaguars will play No. 1 Waukee Northwest (37-1) in Thursday’s title match at 10 a.m. The Wolves extended their winning streak to 20 matches with a sweep over No. 6 Ankeny in the other semifinal.
“We’re just going to have to lock in and play our game and not worry about what’s on the other side of the net,” Schmidt said. “Just be us.”
Centennial is seeking the fifth state title in the 13-year history of the program. Northwest will try to win its second crown in three years.
“We just have to play our game and make sure that we’re pushing each other to be the best version of ourselves, because we have worked really hard for this,” said Northwest senior Avery Vogt, one of the four Division I recruits on the Wolves’ roster. “We just have to do what we know we can do.”
The Wolves defeated Centennial in the semifinals in each of the last two years. They have handed the Jaguars four of their five losses this season.
“We just have to stay confident,” Heither said. “We have to swing high and work around the block, stay disciplined on defense and make sure our blocks are closed. I think we can get them.”
Rinehart said her team needs to play aggressively.
“We’ve played them tentative a few of the times we’ve played them,” she said. “We need to serve really, really tough to make things easier on our side of the net blocking-wise. More than anything, we just need to get out there and play from our hearts and give them everything we’ve got. Our defense has really improved. We touched a ton of balls today. If we can continue to do that (Thursday), that will really frustrate them. We’re going to go for it and have some fun.”
The Wolves have dropped only four sets all season, but two of them came to Centennial in a five-set thriller on Sept. 2 at Northwest. Rinehart is hoping that her team can duplicate the effort in that match.
“That’s the plan. That’s always the goal,” she said of putting some pressure on the Wolves. “However it ends, we want to end the season playing our very best ball.”
