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Nov 6, 2024 T-R PHOTO BY JAKE RYDER - The BCLUW volleyball team celebrates after its three-set sweep of Holy Trinity Catholic in Tuesday’s Class 1A state volleyball quarterfinals at Xtream Arena in

Nov 6, 2024

T-R PHOTO BY JAKE RYDER - The BCLUW volleyball team celebrates after its three-set sweep of Holy Trinity Catholic in Tuesday’s Class 1A state volleyball quarterfinals at Xtream Arena in Coralville. The Comets advance to face Iowa Star Conference foe Janesville in Wednesday’s 6:25 p.m. semifinals.

CORALVILLE — BCLUW volleyball was composed, but never comfortable on Tuesday night.

The Comets took the challenge from Holy Trinity seriously in a Class 1A quarterfinal and used an efficient attack to knock out the Crusaders in straight sets at Xtream Arena in Coralville.

BCLUW won 25-22, 25-16, 25-19, and will advance to take on Janesville in an Iowa Star Conference-flavored semifinal at 6:25 p.m. on Wednesday. The Wildcats took out second-seeded St. Ansgar in straight sets on Tuesday.

“I think we’ve worked really hard for this moment,” BCLUW sophomore Olivia Peters said. “It’s proved a lot about our community and school and it shows that we can do it.”

Holy Trinity returned several pieces from the team that was the runner up in Class 1A last year and came to Coralville as the third seed.

T-R PHOTO BY JAKE RYDER - BCLUW junior Grace Farnsworth (10) goes up for the attack against Holy Trinity during Tuesday’s Class 1A state volleyball quarterfinal match at Xtream Arena in Coralville. Farnsworth led the Comets with 15 kills as BCLUW advanced to Wednesday’s state semifinals.

The Crusaders led 22-19 in the first set but a couple errors and a Sarah Garber kill tied it up for the Comets. Coming out of an HTC timeout, a Klayre Gallentine ace, tandem block for Garber and Virginia Kaisand and one more attack error from the Crusaders gave the first set to the Comets to the tune of six straight points for BCLUW to win it.

“I felt like we came out really composed and just took care of the ball,” BCLUW head coach Megan Yantis said. “Once we started making some better points and making some harder hits, I feel like we kind of got in their heads a little bit.

But they’re a good team, we know they came back in the regional final, so we couldn’t let down, we couldn’t get comfortable.”

The good times kept rolling for BCLUW with six straight to start the second, and HTC couldn’t string together more than two points in a row the rest of the way as the Comets coasted on the cushion to a 2-0 advantage.

Grace Farnsworth led the Comets with 15 kills on Tuesday, Olivia Peters added 13 kills and Virginia Kaisand had seven kills and went up for four total blocks, including one solo. Cassie Nason had 34 assists.

“I felt really good, confident from the start,” Farnsworth said. “I’m glad I could have my team back me up to get the kills I needed.”

Another see-saw exchange in the third set broke the Comets’ way with a 4-0 run to push the advantage to 14-11, powered by two kills from Farnsworth, one from Kaisand and one from Peters. BCLUW did not trail the rest of the way.

“Olivia and Grace got the kills when we needed them to but we were also able to spread their pins a bit and use girls like Virginia, Goldie [Kaisand], Sarah and Savannah [Moeller] – we have our weapons and it’s not always [Peters and Farnsworth], and that’s a good thing to have.”

Farnsworth was also a bulwark defensively with a team-leading 17 digs; libero Klayre Gallentine chipped in 16 digs and Peters had nine.

“They scored a few in that deep corner but we just made some adjustments on that and started picking up stuff,” Yantis said. “Our feet were a little slow at the start but we adjusted well and I felt like we picked up when we needed to.”

Janesville and BCLUW have not met yet this year in spite of being in the Iowa Star constellation — North Tama knocked the Wildcats out of this year’s Iowa Star bracket.

But in both meetings since the Comets joined the Iowa Star, the Comets have come out on top in 2022 and 2023.

“We know they have a good reputation, and we know they’re going to play solid volleyball,” Yantis said. “We’ve got to be ready to play, they’re going to be tough.”

Iowa Girls State Volleyball Tournament

At Xtream Arena, Iowa City

CLASS 1A

Quarterfinals

Tuesday, Nov. 5

Ankeny Christian def. Don Bosco, 25-18, 25-18, 25-22

Riverside def. North Tama, 18-25, 25-21, 23-25, 25-16, 15-11

Janesville def. St. Ansgar, 25-23, 27-25, 25-22

BCLUW def. Holy Trinity Catholic, 25-22, 25-16, 25-19

Semifinals

Wednesday, Nov. 6

No. 1 Ankeny Christian (38-5) vs. No. 4 Riverside (39-3), 6 p.m.

No. 7 Janesville (25-17) vs. No. 6 BCLUW (32-10), 6:25 p.m.

Championship

Thursday, Nov. 7

Semifinal winners, 7 p.m.

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