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CARROLL – Despite taking two losses to Van Meter earlier in the season, Kuemper Catholic came into Thursday night confident and prepared. In the win-or-go-home Region 7 semifinal match, the Kuemper Catholic Knights swept the Van Meter Bulldogs to punch their ticket to the regional championship.
While the Knights came out of the gates firing to take an impressive 25-14 win in the opening set, it was fair to question whether or not they’d be able to sustain that level of play throughout the match—especially against a team as capable as Van Meter.
Kuemper Catholic answered those questions emphatically, however, following up their dominant first-set performance with back-to-back 25-15 wins to reign victorious and secure the sweep.
“The girls played at a level that they need to play at all the time. We knew this was going to be a tough opponent, but the girls did a great job listening to the game plan. We wanted to serve strong and hard to their seams. We made them play out of system a lot, which put things into our favor. The girls knew yesterday that things were stacked against us. The paper down in Cedar Rapids had us losing here and had Van Meter making it to state, so there’s been some bulletin board material for us to use as extra motivation, and the girls decided that they were going to write their own story. It was nice to see them execute on the game plan, and they’re writing their own story each time we go out,” Coach Rusty Wintermote said about the Knights’ impressive performance.
Mariah Heuton led the Knights with 17 kills while Kolbi Peter added another 10. Sophie Lohrmann set the table for many of these kills, leading the team with 36 assists. Coach Wintermote’s praise for the Knights’ serving was justified, as the team recorded an impressive 15 service aces. Mia Milligan led the way with four, while Heuton and Addy Anthofer each registered three. Defensively, Anthofer had a team-high 15 digs while Riley Sommerfeld logged 12. Heuton had two blocks.
This was Kuemper Catholic’s last home match of the season, and both the team and the crowd made the most of it.
“The energy from the crowd played a huge factor. I always try to convince the girls to play through the noise until you hear a whistle. Let the crowd do their cheering, but let the loudest cheer be when you guys do something together. They fed off the energy, but they were also able to stay within each other every time they huddled. Those two things working together led to the success and the atmosphere that we experienced tonight,” Coach Wintermote said.
The Knights will head to Cherokee High School to take on the Cherokee Washington Braves at 7:00 Tuesday night. It is the Region 7 championship match, and a trip to the state tournament is on the line.
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