Volleyball team falls short at State, excited for next season

Jared Hylton/Sports Editor

Getting behind early can kill a team, no pun intended, and that proved true for the volleyball team who were defeated in four sets (25-18, 16-25, 25-10, 25-11) on Wednesday, Nov. 9 in the afternoon in the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena by second-seeded Iowa City High.

This is the first time the Tigers have made it to State Volleyball since 2007, and there aren’t many things that the players would do to change their season’s efforts.

“I would change our emotional roller coaster.

We always had our ups and downs in the season, which were frustrating because we know that we can beat any team if we stay positive and keep encouraging each other,” Miranda Dusenberry said.

The Little Hawks entered the game with a 39-3 record and coming off a three-set-sweep of Muscatine.

Cedar Falls had just completed a sweep of their own, upsetting fourth-ranked Des Moines Dowling in three sets.

“I wish we could play the whole game over again,” Kaz Brown said.

The Tigers found themselves in trouble early, dropping the first set quickly, but, in the second set, Cedar Falls impressively bounced back and took one away from the Little Hawks 25-16.

Next year, the Tigers will return four starters, three of which started as underclassmen, including junior Dusenberry, who will be a fourth-year-starter and sophomore Brown who will be a third-year-starter.

Sophomore Andrea Leisinger is the last of the bunch.

Leisinger weighed in on the volleyball team, “We’ll be doing big things next year.”