Although giving Davenport Assumption everything they wanted, the West Liberty High School Volleyball team fell one game short of their pursuit to return to the Class 3A Iowa State tournament finals, falling in straight sets to talented Davenport Assumption Tuesday night, Oct. 27, in neutral Tipton.
The back and forth affair was at its tipping point multiple times throughout the three set match, the Comets losing twice by two points and having small leads from time to time throughout the night.
Acting coach Brittney Boffeli, filling in for Ruben Galvan, said the team gave it everything they had against the higher ranked Knights. “This group, freshman on up, are very special girls,” she said of her Comets. “They’re always working hard. They’re cohesive but always wanting feedback from one another.”
The opening set went to the Knights 27-25 after the Comets came back from 19-16 and 22-19 deficits to take a 24-23 lead. The Comets had multiple opportunities to close out the set but were unable to capitalize on their opportunities.
West Liberty lost momentum in the second set, falling 25-17 after getting behind 4-0 early. The coach said the team struggled late in returning serves from the Knights. “We struggled with serve receive – we just couldn’t get in the flow of things” Boffeli said, “Assumption has good servers and we weren’t quick enough to adapt.”
The match ended in the third set despite the Comets knotting the score at 17, but the Knights rallied to take the slim win, 26-24, to end the West Liberty season
Assumption was 23-2 on the season going into state tournament play today (Tuesday), opening the eight-team event in Cedar Rapids with a four-game set win over Orange City Unity Christian, who took the second game of the match 25-17 after Assumption rolled to a 25-20 first set win. The Knights finished with 25-19 and 25-22 wins to advance to the final four.
The Comets ended their season with a 26-7 record including a River Valley Conference Tournament Championship. Their only losses for the season were to state-ranked teams, many in bigger classes.
Seniors Isabel Morrision, Averi Goodale, Emily Bierman and Martha Pace all played their final game for the Comet volleyball team with the loss.
