Metro Sports Report

Cougars' upset bid falls short

DUBUQUE – The young Cinderella's spike had a sometimes sharp edge Tuesday night.

Her defense was often money, even against great odds and adversity. Her poise was perfect. Her resolve to pull the sizable upset was unshakeable.

“We really wanted it,” sophomore setter Anna Fluent said.

The only thing Cedar Rapids Kennedy didn't have was a victorious closing technique.

Emerging as anything but a pushover to a Class 5A No. 8-ranked Dubuque Hempstead team that had easily swept them during the regular season, the green Cougars came within a few points and a couple defensive stops short of the Iowa state tournament.

Gritty Hempstead attacker Lauren Streets, playing hurt, scored the breathless match's final four points and put up a season-saving block of fearless Kennedy freshman Paige Franck at 13-13 of the decisive fifth set, allowing Hempstead to outlast the Cougars, 3-2 (25-14, 23-25, 23-25, 25-18, 15-13), in a sensational regional final at Senior High's Nora Gym.

Saints denied by West Delaware

DYERSVILLE – Though they're far from a one-woman volleyball team, it seems that as Kayla Torson goes so go the Xavier Saints.

When she's hitting on all cylinders, the Saints are tough to stop.

Third-ranked West Delaware (37-5) pretty much put the brakes on her Tuesday night and claimed a spot in next week's state tournament with a 3-1 win in a Class 4A regional final at Beckman Catholic High School.

After dropping the first set 25-21, the very young Hawks reeled off the next three 25-21, 25-19, 25-23.

J-Hawks fall to PV in regional finals

DAVENPORT - One by one, Amanda Ollinger hugged all of her teammates in the Jefferson locker room Tuesday night after the J-Hawks lost to fifth-ranked Pleasant Valley in the regional finals of the Class 5A volleyball tournament at Davenport Central.

There were plenty of tears, but also an underlying sense of accomplishment for a team that made it within one step of the state tournament after winning only four matches a year ago.

Pleasant Valley kept the hard-hitting Ollinger under wraps most of the night and swept Jefferson, 25-23, 25-16, 25-16 to earn a spot at the state tournament next week at the U.S. Cellular Center in downtown Cedar Rapids.

Marion knocks, Assumption answers

TIPTON - No. 10 Marion will have to keep knocking at the door for another year. No. 7 Davenport Assumption showed the Indians how to knock it down, winning 25-22, 25-23, 25-21 Tuesday in a Class 4A regional final.

Assumption (31-6) faces No. 3 West Delaware (36-5) in the 4A state quarterfinal on Tuesday at the U.S. Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids.

The Knights take a senior-dominated team to the state tournament.

It was that senior lineup that never panicked in tight finishes to all three sets.