Waterloo Columbus Outlasts Denver in Five for a Comeback for the Ages
Five set matches are not totally uncommon in Iowa high school volleyball, considering the competitive nature and all the talent in the state. This may go double for the very competitive NICL-East. But, the way the five setter between Columbus…
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Continue ReadingFive set matches are not totally uncommon in Iowa high school volleyball, considering the competitive
nature and all the talent in the state. This may go double for the very competitive NICL-East. But, the
way the five setter between Columbus and Denver this past Thursday was not the norm.
As #13 Columbus took the floor in this conference matchup, they had lots on the line. They were
coming off a tough loss to a Hudson team that has surprised us at Prep Dig Iowa, and Hudson is much
more talented than we had predicted. Columbus still has matches against Union and the beasts of the
East in Dike-New Hartford. After the recent loss to Hudson, Columbus had to have this match if they
wanted to have a shot at the conference crown. Denver is in the mix for that conference title as well,
and they were actually doing what the Sailors couldn’t-take a match from Hudson.
When the Sailors came out for introductions, it was met with some surprise as their stud Senior libero
was announced as the setter. Surely this was announcer error we figured. As Kate Shannon took the
floor, we realized that she was not donning the libero jersey (senior Julia Benda would be the libero) and
would in fact serve as the Sailor setter for this matchup. Which started extremely rough for the Sailors
as they dropped the first set 25-13, giving up FIVE aces to Denver Freshman Reese Johnson, who would
go on to have 5 kills on the night. Columbus looked like they were in trouble.
Second set did not look much more promising for the Sailors as Denver capitalized on overpasses and
kept the Sailors out of system and Denver snuck out set two from great efforts from Seniors Julia
Vervaecke, Amanda Waterman and Gabby Corday-who added 27 assists on the night.
But the Sailors came to life in the third set, and the lineup looked different defensively as the Sailors
stepped up, stopped the errors and attacked Denver, throttling them 25-7. Just to be sure there was no
mistake about set three, Columbus shelled the Cyclones 25-7 in the fourth set as well. There was no
answer to the serving of Kate Shannon, who kept Denver off balance and dropped ace after ace on
them, finishing with 5 for the night. Benda added three aces herself and came alive defensively. Strong
efforts from Juniors middle Megan Knutson and Emma Purdy and Sophomore Ali Vessly fueled the
Sailors in these sets, and several bombs from Senior stud Syd Schultz (finished with 11 kills) kept the
Denver D on its heels.
Set four was punctuated by a thunderous kill by, of course, the state’s leader in kills-Junior Avery Kroll.
This set the stage for set five where the Sailors would go back and forth early then ran away with it 15-6
as Kroll had 5 kills in the last stanza, adding to her total to reach a match-high 17 for the night, adding to
a state leading 213.
Consistency from Denver will cause us to hear much more from them, and look for this great mix of
Seniors and underclassmen to be a sneaky and difficult out that you don’t want to see in your substate
brackets. Columbus motors forward with some difficult matches in the near future, including Dike,
Union and the CPU and Cedar Falls tournaments.