(Onawa, IA) — The 4th ranked Riverside volleyball team dominated #11 Akron Westfield on Wednesday night — winning in three sets 25-19, 25-9, 25-19 to advance to the state tournament for the 2nd time in school history.
Riverside was in trouble — for about a minute — but the Bulldogs rallied in the first set, scored the first 13 points in the 2nd set and held off the Westerners for a three set sweep. In the first set, Akron Westfield took a 9-3 lead primarily because of hitting errors by the Bulldogs. But slowly but surely, Riverside got their nerves — an Elly Henderson kill followed by a Sydney Somers kill cut the lead to 9-11. It was 13-15 when Madison Kelley took the serve and Riverside took off like a rocket, winning 8 straight points — 3 of them on aces by Kelley who had just moved into a server late in the season. Riverside went from trailing by 3 to leading by 6. They would side out their way to a comeback 25-19 win.
In the second set, the Bulldogs scored the first 13 points to take complete control of the match. Elly Henderson was the server and hit on 5 aces. Bentley Rone had two kills in the streak and the run was demoralizing to Akron Westfield. They only scored 2 points on serve in the second set — which Riverside won 25-9. The Westerners would only win 8 points on serve in the final set. They would lead 8-4 but a side out and Riverside answered with 4 points on serve to take a 9-8 lead. The Bulldogs led 11-10 got another side out, then 4 more points on serve to lead 16-10 and never looked back from there.
Elly Henderson finished with 9 kills, 6 digs, and 5 aces and talked about the opportunity to go back to state
Also for Riverside, Sydney Somers had 9 kills; Sophia Taylor 9 kills; Bentley Rone 8 kills, 19 assists, 7 digs; Ashley Kelley 15 assists; Ayla Richardson 10 digs; Madison Kelley 5 aces, 2 blocks.
Akron Westfield finishes their season at 21-5, Riverside is now 38-3 and advances to the 1A state tournament as the 4 seed — they will face #5 North Tama, Tuesday night, November 5 (Election Night) at 8 pm
1A State Tournament Bracket
