Red Oak's season ends with Kuemper Catholic loss at state tournament

CEDAR RAPIDS — “I’ll never forget the feeling of playing on a state floor.”

Makelti White is proud to be part of Red Oak volleyball. She’s been part of the varsity team since her freshman year in 2010, when she was on the bench for the Tigers 3A quarterfinal match against Mount Vernon.

Red Oak’s volleyball season came to an end last Wednesday when they lost in the quarterfinals of the 3A state volleyball tournament to Kuemper Catholic, 3-1, at the same location as White’s first state appearance, the US Cellular Center.

“We all worked hard for one another and it’s awesome to make it to state, but I wish we could have gone further,” White said.

The loss not only marks an end for another Red Oak volleyball season, but for White and four other seniors, it’s the end of high school volleyball.

“It’s a great accomplishment to get here. We didn’t want it to end in the first round, we knew they were a beatable team,” senior Blake Bergren said. “We just couldn’t put enough runs together in the end.”

Last year, they lost 3-1 to the eventual state champions, MOC-Floyd Valley.

“All of our seniors, it’s bittersweet because it was within our grasp,” Red Oak Coach Angela Montgomery said. “But they’ve had a great season.”

It was a rough start in game one for Red Oak as Kuemper Catholic jumped out to a double-digit lead early. The Knights scored 10 of the first 12 points to take a 10-2 lead, forcing the Tigers to call timeout.

Red Oak scored a couple more points, but the lead increased for Kuemper Catholic. The Knights were five points away from a first set win as they led 20-5.

“We came out really strong and really focused. Our offense was clicking and we had so many good hits,” Kuemper Catholic hitter Maria Dentlinger said.

The Tigers rallied chipping away at the double-digit deficit, starting with a spike by Bergren.

“I just knew that I had to keep it on the court and live to see it another day. Courtney [Billings] set me and I knew I had my opportunity to put the ball away,” Bergren said.

From there, Red Oak scored three more points to cut the lead to 20-9 and Kuemper Catholic used a timeout. After the timeout, Red Oak scored twice before Kuemper Catholic scored again.

Red Oak continued to claw back, as a White ace, followed by a hit into the net made Kuemper’s lead 21-14, forcing Kuemper to burn its second timeout of the game.

“[The Tigers] were really aggressive, hitting it at us, getting us out of system. They just wanted it so bad. We just needed to keep getting our offense going,” Dentlinger said.

Both teams swapped points, but the Knights held on to defeat the Tigers 25-17 and take a 1-0 lead in the match.

“We got off to a bad start. We were nervous and you could totally tell,” Walker said. “That momentum, us coming back and only getting beat 25-17, that really carried us in the next two sets.”

Red Oak struggled on the offensive attack in game one with four kills out of 22 attack attempts. It was their only game with single-digit kills.

“Once we had our sea legs underneath us and got comfortable, our passing was pretty off at the beginning, but we mounted a pretty good comeback,” Montgomery said. “That brought us some momentum definitely in the second set.”

The two teams traded points to start game two, before Kuemper Catholic jumped out to a 13-8 lead, forcing Red Oak to call a timeout.

Red Oak rallied though, scoring eight of the next 10 points and taking the lead for the first time in the match at 16-15. After a few more Tiger points, the Knights rallied and pulled ahead 21-19.

Red Oak responded by tying the game at 21.

“We were just being real scrappy, getting on the floor for everything,” Walker said.

The Knights called timeout and scored to take a 22-21 lead following the pause. Walker responded though with a kill of her own. The two teams traded points again at 23, before Red Oak took a 24-23 lead on a block by Billings and Grace Blomstedt.

Kuemper Catholic took away the game point opportunity and scored again on an ace by Dentlinger to lead 25-24. Blomstedt followed up with another kill to tie it at 25.

“I think I did okay, it wasn’t my best day, but it wasn’t terrible,” Blomstedt said.

Kuemper Catholic scored the next two points and won game two 27-25.

Red Oak refused to quit, scoring four of the first six points to start the third game. Kuemper Catholic rallied to tie it at 5, but Red Oak pulled ahead 8-5, with an ace at the end of the run by Billings.

Kuemper Catholic played catch-up, but Red Oak held on for a few more points. The only lead Kuemper Catholic had in game three was 16-15. Blomstedt recorded a kill to tie and Red Oak re-took the lead on the next point.

Kuemper Catholic did all they could to catch up, but Walker, as well as Angela Mahoney ramped up their scoring efforts down the stretch.

Mahoney scored a kill to make it 20-18 and forced the Knights to call timeout. Walker followed up with three kills and Red Oak had the 24-20 lead. Kuemper Catholic scored once more, but Red Oak stayed alive, winning 25-21.

Red Oak finished the third game with 13 kills, the most out of all the four games.

“We’ve been working very hard to connect with our hitters and I think today showed that. Our hitters were awesome and our passing improved throughout the game,” White said.

The Tigers fought to stay close in the fourth game, but it wouldn’t be enough as Kuemper Catholic prevented the fifth game with a 25-21 win, eliminating Red Oak from the state tournament.

“It kind of sucks because they’re so beatable and we really believed we could do it, but we just didn’t play our best today,” Walker said.

Kuemper Catholic made it all the way to the state championship, but lost in the final match to MOC-Floyd Valley 3-0.

Leading the way for Red Oak was Walker, who finished with 12 kills out of 41 attack attempts and had 20 digs.

Blomstedt had nine kills for Red Oak, while Mahoney had eight, Madison Gilbert had four and Billings and Bergren each recorded three.

White, Blomstedt and Mahoney each had 10 digs for the Tigers.

White and Billings each had 16 assists, while Bergren had four, as the team recorded 36 for the match.

Red Oak had a great match serving as they were 84-for-89 with 13 aces. Gilbert led with three aces, while Blomstedt, White, Mahoney, Walker and Billings each had two.

This was the second meeting for Red Oak against Kuemper Catholic this season. The first meeting was the season opener in Carroll, which ended in a 3-1 loss Sept. 5.

“They have good blocks, they have tall girls. I don’t think they’ve changed that much,” Blomstedt said.

Red Oak finishes 2013 with a 27-7 record for the second straight season. Last year, Red Oak advanced to the state tournament, but lost to MOC-Floyd Valley in the quarterfinals.

“I’ve played on a lot of different teams, like clubs, but this is definitely my favorite team to play on,” White said. “They’re not only my teammates, but they’re my best friends. We all get along and it’s always a good time. I just love this team.”

White, Billings, Bergren, as well as Sabrina Guerra and McKenna Mertz are the graduating seniors this season.

“These girls, this team is phenomenal,” Bergren said. “It’s great to be around them, never a dull moment.”

Three of those seniors (Billings, White and Bergren) were key in setting up the offensive attack for the Tigers.

“Your setter is kind of like your quarterback on the court, they’re the ones that are running the plays and deciding who is going to get the ball at what point,” Montgomery said. “Those are basically leadership roles.”

Of the three setters, only White was a freshman on the varsity team in 2010. White finished the season with 392 assists.

“She’s been there,” Montgomery said about White. “She was there in 2010 and saw what she wanted to be a part of and she’s been excellent in trying to get everybody involved.”

Billings led the team in assists with 402, while Bergren finished third on Red Oak with 86.

“We’re losing some big leadership roles on the right side and as our setters,” Montgomery said. “We need to make sure we have someone that wants to step in and that’s a big job. I think we’ve got kids that are willing to do that.”

Guerra meanwhile was the libero for Red Oak this season as she recorded 93 digs heading into the state tournament.

Mertz primarily handled serves as she was 207 of 241 with 19 aces this season.

The Tigers have no shortage of hitters returning for next season, including the three leading ones for this season, Walker, Blomstedt and Mahoney.

Walker finished the season with 351 kills, while Mahoney had 251 and Blomstedt 242.

“The kids that we’re returning, they’re going to come back strong and be ready to go,” Montgomery said.