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| Tipton players celebrate their first trip to the state tournament after recording the last point against Davis County. Photo by Ryan Stonebraker. |
By Ryan Stonebraker
Sports Editor
WILLIAMSBURG — For the first time in school history, a Tipton volleyball team will be among the 8-team state bracket. The Tigers punched their ticket to the state volleyball tournament next week with the victory in Williamsburg Monday night, sending the team to the program’s first state tournament. 8th ranked Tipton defeated unranked Davis County 3-0 in a Region 8 final sweep. Tipton won by scores of 25-14, 25-18 and 25-11. The Tigers will play 6th ranked Osage on Wednesday, November 8 at the U.S. Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids. The Tigers capped off a perfect postseason run to date, with a 3-0 match record and 9-0 game record.
“These girls are amazing workers. They worked hard in the off season and in the summer. Same group from last year mostly, we added some freshman this year. I am super proud of them and excited for this opportunity for them,” said Tipton volleyball coach Amy Calonder.
“We wanted to go get school history tonight. Late in the match in the huddle I told them ‘Hey, you are about to make history here’, get excited for that,” she said.
Tipton led late in the third game, already up 2-0 when Calonder inserted senior Allie Ryan. Ryan, who was injured last basketball season, has recovered from her knee injury and has gotten in a few late season matches. Ryan subbed in to served and served a point for the Tigers to make it 24-10. After a Davis County point put the score at 24-11, the Tigers wrapped up the game and sealed the match on a Mustang error. The resulting celebration and hollering likely could be heard back in Cedar County as years of misses at a state bid, finally were realized.
“It’s crazy, it hasn’t been done before,” said Tipton junior Amanda Smith. “We definitely have to keep working hard. I think that we all knew from the beginning that we had it. We had a good mentality that we were going to do this (get to state) and we did,”she said.
Smith had 16 assists to lead the Tigers offense. She added 10 digs, 3 kills and served 12-for-14 with an ace serve.
“We were confident and ready to play. Knowing that we already made history just being in this match helped us in this match. It wasn’t enough for us though. We wanted to get to state,” said Tipton sophomore Sommer Daniel.
“From the beginning of the year we thought we could get here. This year has been so much more intense in practice and we have really worked hard for this,” said Daniel.
Daniel led Tipton in kills with 11 on 27 attacks in the match. She recorded double digit assists (15) and digs (13) and served 12-of-14 with two aces.
Davis County upset 22-win Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont to reach the Region 8 Final. The Mustangs beat South Central Conference foe Centerville in the Region 8 quarterfinals 3-0 and had won their last four matches and four of their last five. The Mustangs were 17-22 entering the match.
The Tigers have had a weird mode of operation in postseason matches thus far where they start slow. Monday’s match was no different. The Tigers led 6-5 early, but never trailed. From there, however, the Tigers turned it on with a closing run of 19-8 to take the first game 25-14. Kamryn Chapman served the Tigers to 17-8 with a mini run of points that came from a Blake Ehler block, two aces and a Mustang error. Jamie Kofron served the Tigers 20th point in the game to give Tipton a 10-point, 20-10 lead and Chapman finished the set off serving the final two points, a kill from Sommer Daniel and a booming kill from Emily Hermsen.
The second set was the most competitive of the match. Smith again served the Tigers into the lead 4-1 after the Mustangs scored the first point of the set for a 1-0 lead. A Daniel kill gave the Tigers the ball back on a side out at 1-1 and three straight Tipton points, an ace, a Mustang error and an Emily Hermsen kill gave Tipton a lead in the set they would not relinquish. Tipton led by five points, 9-4 and 11-6 in the set and by seven 14-7 and saw the lead swell to nine, 16-7. Davis County would trim the Tiger lead to four points, 22-18 with a 11-6 run. Tipton settled in though and scored the final three points of the game to take the second game 25-18 and a commanding match lead, 2-0.
Smith served Tipton to a 3-0 lead to start the third game. Later, Chapman served Tipton to an 11-4 lead and the Tigers kept piling on the points. Tipton ended the match on a 14-7 run to claim the game, 25-11 and match 3-0.
Several times in the match the Davis County serve receive struggled to get digs up. In part from the Tigers relentless kill swings. Some Mustangs looked shocked at how fast the ball was coming in.
“I think it helps when other teams struggle with passing,” said Tipton junior Blake Ehler. “Then, when we get that awesome kill, it definitely builds on the intensity we already have,” she said.
Ehler is one of five Tipton players with over 100 kills for the season and a sixth, Emily Hermsen is closing in on 100 kills herself. Conversely, Davis County had only two players with over 100 kills this season. Ehler tallied 8 kills in the match on 19 attacks with many hitting the floor uncontested by a serve receive. Ehler added 12 digs, one of four Tigers with double digit dig totals in the match and served 9-for-10 with an ace.
Ehler said that having played on the court earlier this season was helpful in the Regional Final.
“It’s like it was a home court advantage for us. We were familiar with the court, having played here earlier this season in a tournament was very helpful,” she said.
Tipton had 92 attacks in the match and had 36 kills. Sommer Daniel was 24-for-27 in attacks with 11 kills. Tipton’s offense depth was on full display in the match as Kamryn Chapman chipped in with 6 kills, Jamie Kofron had 5 and Emily Hermsen had 3. Tipton served 65-for-73 with nine ace serves in the match. Kamryn Chapman led Tigers servers in the match, going 14-for-14 with four of the Tigers nine ace serves. Five of the seven Tipton servers in the match recorded at least one ace serve. Chapman helped control the net with three of the Tigers six blocks in the match.
Tipton 3, Davis County 0
Region 8 Final
At Williamsburg
Monday, October 30
Tipton Statistics:
Attacks (81-92 36 kills): Sommer Daniel 24-27 11 kills, Blake Ehler 15-19 8 kills, Kamryn Chapman 11-12 6 kills, Emily Hermsen 10-12 3 kills, Amanda Smith 12-12 3 kills, Jamie Kofron 9-10 5 kills.
Assists (34): Amanda Smith 16, Sommer Daniel 15, Emily Hermsen 2, Jamie Kofron 1.
Blocks (6): Kamryn Chapman 3, Blake Ehler 1, Jamie Kofron 1, Amanda Smith 1.
Serving (65-for-73 9 aces): Kamryn Chapman 14-for-14 4 aces, Sommer Daniel 12-for-14 2 aces, Amanda Smith 12-for-14 1 ace, Blake Ehler 9-for-10 1 ace, Emily Hermsen 8-for-10, Jamie Kofron 8-for-9, Allie Ryan 2-for-2.
Digs (61): Sommer Daniel 13, Blake Ehler 12, Emily Hermsen 12, Amanda Smith 10, Jamie Kofron 5, Laken Hermiston 5, Kamryn Chapman 4.
Tigers To Play Wednesday, November 8 at 10 AM
TIPTON — The 2017 class 3A state volleyball brackets were released. The 8-team tournament is a single elimination tournament. The Tipton Tigers will be the 5th seed in the tournament and play #6 and 4-seed Osage (25-9). The Tigers are ranked #8 in class 3A. The winner of that match will play the winner of top seed Sioux Center (32-5) and 8-seeded Red Oak (23-13) on Thursday, November 9 at 2:00 p.m. The state tournament is at the downtown U.S. Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids. Here is some other important information:
Tickets: Tickets to the state volleyball tournament at the U.S. Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids will be available in advance through Ticketmaster. Hard paper tickets will no longer be mailed to schools who qualify for the state tournament. Advanced ticket sales will only be available online.
Tickets through Ticketmaster.com are charge by phone at 1-800-745-3000 for $12 inclusive of all online fees. Fans purchasing this way will have the ability to purchase their tickets in advance and have them securely delivered via e-mail to print at home, or through mobile delivery to their phones.
General admission tickets will still be available at the U.S. Cellular Center Box Office for $10 throughout the week.
Television and Online Viewing: CISN.tv will stream the quarterfinal and semifinal matches free of charge and can be accessed by typing in that website or viewing the matches on the homepage of the IGHSAU at IGHSAU.org. CISN.tv also has a youtube page and archive matches there. Quarterfinal and semifinal matches will not be televised. Iowa Public Television will televise Friday’s championship matches live statewide. Friday matches will also be streamed live online for free at IPTV.org.
General Spectator Information: All seats are general admission Tuesday-Thursday. Official state tournament programs are $5 and sold at the east end of the main concourse. Also, common sense wins the day. Most objects are not allowed by fans like noisemakers, signs, banners, laser pens, air horns, etc. Fans are not allowed to pound on seats either and fans must wear a shirt and shoes during the matches.
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