Warriors sweep Cadets to advance to Class 1A VB regional quarterfinals

By John Burbridge sports@charlescitypress.com

ROCKFORD — Going into Tuesday’s Class 1A-Region 5 first-round volleyball match, the hosting Rockford Warriors were winners of eight of their last nine.

Their opponents, the CAL Cadets, had only won one match all year — but they had two ties from a late-season tournament in Waterloo.

Like the saying “There’s no crying in baseball” … “There’s no tying in the postseason” no matter what the sport.

The Warriors made sure of that as they disposed the visitors with a three-game sweep (25-4, 25-13, 25-13) during a match that lasted just a little more than 30 minutes.

Rockford (13-14) advances to the bracket quarterfinals where it will face North Iowa at 7 p.m. Oct. 23 in Buffalo Center. The Bison defeated West Hancock in straight games to earn their quarterfinal berth.

The Warriors and Bison had previously met during this past weekend’s Garner-Hayfield-Ventura Tournament with Rockford winning the best-of-three match 2-1 on way to advancing as far as the semifinals.

Against the Cadets, the Warriors didn’t necessarily turn out the lights early ­— but they nearly decommissioned some of them.

In the first game, Rockford sophomore Kayla Carroll slapped in a heavy-handed kill attempt that was dug up by the Cadets’ back-line. But the ball was hit so hard that the dig shot straight up in the air to rattle a fluorescent light housing hanging in the rafters.

Somehow the lights remained intact, but the wayward dig appeared to rouse several wasps that may have been nesting in the area.

The real sting came from Rockford’s hard, sinking serves that addled the Cadets throughout the short match.

Senior Jamie Schuster was one of several Warriors who dealt CAL ace after ace from a bottomless deck of cards. Schuster’s 12-straight service points led way to the first win.

Senior Emily Reams took over from the service line in the second game to give the Warriors a 10-2 lead before CAL rallied a bit to get a little closer (16-12) only to have Rockford finish on a 9-1 run.

The Cadets took a 3-0 lead in the third game and — after later trailing 10-4 — rallied to tie it at 12 thanks in part to several unforced Warrior errors. But after Rockford’s only timeout of the evening, the Warriors closed the match in convincing fashion.