Wolverines on way to state volleyball tournament

Back in August, East Mills volleyball coach Connie Viner thought she had the pieces of potentially a very good team.

Tonight, the Wolverines combined all those pieces into a regional championship and a trip the Iowa State Volleyball Tournament.

“We had the pieces, the puzzle was right there for us,” said Viner after the match. “And we found it.”

The Wolverine dominated from start to finish in the match – trailing only briefly 2-0 in the third set – on their way to a 25-20, 25-22, 25-11 sweep of Council Bluffs St. Albert in the Class 1A, Region 6 finals in Glenwood.

East Mills (33-4) opens state play top seeded Saint Ansgar (28-4) in state Tuesday’s state quarterfinals at the Xtreme Arena in Coralville. The match is slated to begin at 6 p.m.

Quick starts in both of the first sets had East Mills ahead 9-1 and then 7-1 before the Saintes battled back in both. In the first, they cut the lead to 22-20 before the Wolverines scored the final three points to secure the win. In the second set, St. Albert erased a 14-4 margin and rallied to tie it at 20-20.

But like they did in the first set, and really all night, the Wolverines re-focused, stayed in system and pulled away, scoring five of the final seven points.

The Wolverines never looked nervous, even when they watched the Saintes go on a 7-0 run in the second set and ever so briefly take a lead in the third set.

“They were very loose tonight,” Viner said. “They were so loose tonight and not nervous at all. It was great to see.”

As good as East Mills was along the front – Ava Grindle and Loycee Palmer combined for 24 kills – it was the defense that drove the Wolverines.

“We were going after everything,” Viner said. “I told them we are playing ten touches on every ball. We were going to get everything up and over communicate on every ball.”

Grindle was especially big in middle in the final set, knocking down five of her 11 kills in a stretch the Wolverines turned their 13-8 lead into a 21-10 margin.

“She was a force up there,” Viner said. “They didn’t have an answer for her.”

The trip to state in the Wolverines first since making back-to-back trips in 2017 and 2018.

“It means the world,” Viner said of going back to state with her team. “These girls have had that at the very top of their goal list. We just had to take it one day at a time and keep getting better. I knew they had it in them. It’s a very special group.”