(Guthrie Center) ACGC is a win away from the state volleyball tournament. Standing in the way of the Chargers and a trip to Cedar Rapids is 10th ranked South Hardin. The teams will meet at North Polk High School in a Class 2A Regional Final on KSOM Wednesday evening.
ACGC is 23-12. They’ve won 20 of their last 24 matches. South Hardin boasts a win-loss mark of 35-5. The Tigers were a state tourney team a year ago. “We’ve watched some film on them and they have two very strong middles that we are watching real close with Rylee Nelson (195 kills) and Drue Luiken (175 kills). These girls are very talented. They are pretty consistent. They really hit the ball all over the court.”
That’s ACGC coach Jen Policky whose Chargers were the 4th seed in the region, but don’t tell them they don’t belong. “We are finally a full team again. We had Chloe (Largent) out at the beginning of the season with injury. We’ve had Saige O’Brien out for most of the season. She just played her first game back since the beginning of the season. We are very excited to have both of our super tall girls in the front row being able to put up a real big block for us. So we are really excited going into this match that we are going to be playing our best ball of the season.”
ACGC advanced to this round with a win over SW Valley on Monday. They erased a slow start to take the match in four sets. “We really gained momentum as the match went along. We started out pretty slow and didn’t have our passing right, but by the end of that game we were really having way more ball control, less missed serves, and were playing way more offense than we were defense.”
South Hardin’s Jaidyn Teske leads the state in digs with 665. She has over 100 more digs than any other play in Class 2A. Macy Engelson’s 69 aces are 4th most in the state. Emma Salvo is #5 in the state in assists with 916.
ACGC’s Chloe Largent is 3rd in the state in kills with 480 and 3rd in aces with 69. She has a .429 kill efficiency. Alaina Bunde is 4th in blocks with 36.
Pregame coverage starts at 6:45 with the first serve at 7:00.
ACGC coach Jen Policky:
