When the Ankeny Centennial volleyball team lost a five-set thriller at Waukee Northwest on Sept. 2, it turned out to be a preview of Thursday’s Class 5A championship match at Xtream Arena in Coralville.
The final meeting between the two CIML Conference rivals, though, wasn’t nearly as close.
Top-ranked Northwest captured its second state title in three years with a 25-10, 25-21, 25-18 victory over the No. 2 Jaguars. The Wolves (38-1) won 21 straight matches and 52 consecutive sets to close out one of the most dominating seasons in Iowa prep history.
“They have a lot of great weapons all around, so it’s hard to stop them,” said Centennial libero Mya Lei-Butters, who was named to the all-tournament team along with fellow senior Tatem Schmidt.
Centennial finished with a 34-6 record. Five of its six losses came to Northwest, which also defeated the Jaguars in the Class 5A semifinals in each of the previous two years.
“I am so proud of our team,” said Centennial coach Jessica Rinehart. “They were a great, united team. They fought hard. We just ran into a giant today.”
The Wolves outhit Centennial by a .230 to .016 margin. Logan Vogt led Northwest with 14 kills, including one to close out the match.
“I was just trying to do it for the team,” said Vogt, whose squad lost to Pleasant Valley in the 2024 final. “I wanted to finish this match, especially for the seniors. I’ve been waiting for this moment since last year, and it felt good.”
Northwest dominated the match in nearly every statistical category. The Wolves racked up 15 total blocks to just three for Centennial and also had the edge in aces (4-1), kills (42-27) and digs (61-57).
“We knew they were a great team. We know them very well,” Schmidt said. “We’ve played them multiple times, and we knew we had to come in and play our best ball–and we fell just short of that. We still played for each other the whole time. There was not anyone playing for themselves. We were all there for each other.”
Rinehart was hoping that her team could serve aggressively to put some pressure on the Wolves, but Centennial had four service errors in 51 attempts for a .922 serving percentage. The Jaguars had one of those errors to open the match.
“It’s a big environment, and we haven’t played in the state final before like they have multiple times,” Lei-Butters said. “It was a nerve-wracking environment for everybody, and we definitely could have served tougher. We could have gotten more touches all around. The balls kept coming at us, and we didn’t have a chance with it.”
Ellie Pollock had the only ace for Centennial late in the third set, but by then the match was almost over.
“Our plan was to serve really tough to get them out of system to make blocking easier and to get us better touches on the block to help our defense,” Rinehart said. “That was the plan, but they’re even hard to get out of system and even when they are out of system, they seem to manage to be able to swing around our block and through our block. We just had a hard time slowing them down.
“And on the flip side, we had a hard time getting around them. It was a tough matchup,” she added.
Northwest never trailed in the opening set. After a kill by Mady Ott pulled Centennial to within 8-6, the Wolves answered with a 17-4 run to close it out.
Avery Cordes had back-to-back aces and Leah Janulewicz pounded three consecutive kills during the run, which was capped off by a kill from Piper Ladwig. Northwest posted a .500 hitting efficiency in the set.
“We’ve learned a lot from this year, and we know Centennial is not a team to take lightly,” Vogt said. “They’re really good, and they have a lot of weapons. So we did a lot of scouting and really prepared for this game.”
The Jaguars got off to a fast start in Set 2 and eventually took an 11-7 lead on a kill by Adilyne Reyes. But Northwest then responded with a 13-2 run that included five blocks.
Cassidy Danburg led the Wolves with three solo blocks and six assists. Cordes added two solo blocks and two assists.
“We work on blocking every single practice. Shoutout to the Iowa Lakes drill that we have to do every time,” said Vogt, whose kill capped the run and gave Northwest a 20-13 advantage. “We really try to stay disciplined on our blocks and talk and go up at the same time. Obviously, our middles work really hard. Cassidy and Cordes are amazing blockers. It really helps our defense.”
Centennial eventually closed the gap to 23-21, but Northwest then got kills from Janulewicz and Ladwig to close out the set. The Wolves hit just .056 in Set 2, but the Jaguars struggled even more to a -.017 efficiency.
There were five ties and two lead changes in Set 3 before Northwest pulled away. Schmidt had a kill and a block on consecutive points early in the set, but the Jaguars never led by more than two points.
Northwest used a 10-4 run to build a 20-13 margin. Schmidt got another kill to cut the deficit to 21-17 before the Wolves scored four of the next five points to seal the victory.
“We realized we can hang with them,” Schmidt said. “We can beat them and we’re capable of it, and we’ve done it before in our conference match (last year). We just needed to come out with more fire and hotter, and we would have played a little better.”
Ladwig finished with 12 kills, while all-tournament captain Avery Vogt dished out 36 assists. London Taylor added 19 digs and two aces.
Ott led the Jaguars with eight kills, while Pollock chipped in six. They both hit at a .278 clip.
Schmidt finished with five kills, 11 assists and 12 digs. Maegan Cheeseman dished out 13 assists and also had a pair of blocks.
Lei-Butters racked up 15 digs. Kaelyn Rinehart contributed eight digs and also completed all 11 of her serves.
Centennial will have to replace six of the 10 players who saw some action on Thursday.
“We’ve got to take some time to relax and reflect, and then we’ll get excited for what the next season can bring,” Rinehart said.
