The Wolpack tears apart the Falcons

I was driving home last week and I passed a van from Algona High School* on I-380 in Cedar Rapids. I starting thinking that was strange and a moment later realized that the Girl's State Volleyball Tournament was underway at the US Cellular Center.

I thought this might be a fun event to take the kids to and just generally a fun event so, in spite of having no connection to any of the schools participating and not even any particular affinity for the sport, we went to the evening session last Friday night.

Naturally, there was some initial resistance from Evan (Amelia is more adventurous). He was quickly bribed with a trip to Burger King and we headed downtown. I wasn't sure what the parking situation would be like, but was pleasantly surprised to find on-street parking just three blocks from the arena.

Admission was $7 per session. Children not yet enrolled in Kindergarten were free. A group of students waiting in the lobby showed their school spirit with an impressive assortment of silly outfits. One of the strange things about this evening was that we didn't even know what teams were playing. But judging by the silly outfits, at least one school's colors included blue.

We headed up an escalator and were presented with a choice between two entrances. We took the second one and entered into the upper level of the Cellular Center. The floor of the arena was set-up with two courts crosswise, i.e., perpendicular to what would be the natural grain of a basketball court, and divided with a massive net to protect each match from interference by errant volleyballs from the other.

The lower bowl was pretty well full so we settled on upper level seats in the first row. We found ourselves surrounded by a growing contingent of fans from Dike-New Hartford whom were apparently biding their time until the next set of matches scheduled to start at 7:15 PM.

The immediate matches started and I concentrated on corralling the children while trying to figure out what teams were playing. The near (east) court featured a team in white and maroon vs. a team outfitted in black with orange highlights. The far (west) court pitted a blue team against a black team with red highlights. Over the course of the next 90 minutes the team identities were gradually revealed as follows:

White & Maroon = Western Christian

Black & Orange = Applington-Parkersburg

Blue = Holy Trinity Fort Madison

Black & Red = Manning

Because Dike-New Hartford's colors are also blue, I never was sure if the crazy students from the lobby were D-NH fans arriving early or HTFM fans right on time.

Several days earlier when I was considering attending a game, I looked at the brackets and was surprised to see that the smaller school classes 1A and 2A were scheduled in the "prime time" slots. Sitting in the stands, I had some sense of why. The crowds were impressive and the student sections (from Western Christian and Holy Trinity in particular) were well organized and reacted to the ongoing action with choreographed cheers and dances. I'm guessing that the organizers of the tournament (the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union) gave preferential starting times to the smaller classes for the admirable reason that the games mean more to the smaller communities. I don't know if that's true, but I hope it is. I'll keep this in mind and check out the brackets when the tournaments for the Winter sports come around in the spring.

Western Christian made short work of Applington-Parkersburg and just generally looked like the juggernaut they are (5 state championships in the past 6 years). In spite of the easy win for the Wolfpack, it was enjoyable to watch. Volleyball, like ice hockey, is a sport that shines when seen live and in person. It had been so long since I'd been to a volleyball match, they'd had time to change the scoring system in the interim. Presumably in a nod to television and to make the length of games more predictable, I see that they are now using rally scoring at all times. Sometimes I can be crotchety about stuff like that but, in the case of volleyball, I think all the spirit of the game is retained.

We headed across the arena to the other match which was much more closely fought. (Note that the headline in the link is currently from the wrong game. I'm going to e-mail the author.) We stayed for a game or so and headed home.

All in all, a fun time. I'll make plans for next year. Western Christian went on to defeat Dike-New Hartford in the 2A finals while Holy Trinity fell to Wapsie Valley in the 1A finals. I caught the latter match on IPTV over the weekend.

What an incredible season for Holy Trinity! They won 48 matches this year and lost three. The three losses were to 4A (Iowa's largest class) runner-up Johnston, 2A Champion Western Christian, and 1A Champion Wapsie Valley.

It's quite a fall for Wapsie Valley Warriors too. After bringing home the Volleyball Championship, they're taking on Lawton-Bronson in the Class A Football Championship game this Friday.

* The Algona Bulldogs would go on to lose to the Mt. Vernon Mustangs on Friday afternoon.