State Volleyball Part 1

            State volleyball this year was help at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena for the first time, due to remodeling taking place at the US Cellular Center. When I first heard this at the end of last year’s season I almost had a heart attack. Immediately I thought of all of the problems I could think of with the ice arena. Would there be enough seating? How would the courts be set up? Is it going to be cold? Is the ice going to melt?! I was assured it would be alright.

            Boy, were they right. The ice arena was great! There was plenty of seating with even some leftover seats at each match. The smaller size made entering the arena much less overwhelming, in a good way. The closeness of the fan sections made us feel a lot more “at home” then the typical balcony seating at the US Cellular Center where the open floor plan makes the arena seem ten times bigger. Another concern was the noise level during the game with the student sections in a more enclosed setting. Surprisingly-although the noise level was high- this was more of an energy booster on the court having your school rooting you on so closely. As a trade-off, though, this also meant the opposing team was just as close to cheer against you.
            Our first match at the state tournament was against Dubuque Hempstead in the quarter-finals. We came into this match ranked behind so we knew we had something to prove. Being the “underdog” team at state every year gives us the extra determination we need to come out strong and surprise a lot of people. We won our first match with ease, knocking Hempstead out of the tournament. Prior to our match, Iowa City West defeated Council Bluffs. This placed us in the semi-finals with Iowa City West two days later. Being our fourth year in a row facing IC West in the semi-finals, we were pumped and ready to break the curse. 
             We came out in the first two games with obvious jitters. Nuff said. The third game was going West’s way, but we made a huge last second turnaround at 20-23 (West lead). We won a close third game. With the crowd going crazy we went on a run in the fourth game, defeating West 25-13. It was down to the fifth game, tiebreaker. West came out second-guessing themselves but took an early lead. Not being able to finish the final game, we lost 15-7, ending our State Tournament run. Iowa City West advanced to the finals along with Iowa City High, who defeated Ankeny in a close 5-gamer. The final match was won by Iowa City West in a 5 game match.