“THIS IS SO HYPE!!!” - Comets streak to 1A championship

CORALVILLE - One year after a historic season for BCLUW volleyball, the Comets have reached even higher with a State semifinal sweep over Janesville on Wednesday night to reach the Class 1A championship against Ankeny Christian Academy on Thursday. 

“We just want to see each other's success on the court,” senior Raegan Crawford said. “Everyone gets excited when one of us makes a big play. It’s that mentality that made it hard to lose to Ankeny Christian last year and walk off the court crying. We don’t want to feel that again.”

Iowa Star Conference rival Janesville stood in the way of Crawford and the Comets’ desire to end their season on a win. A balanced attack early from the Comets showed they didn’t care who made the play, but rather if that play was made for their team. Four kills from sophomore Olivia Peters and three from junior Grace Farnsworth helped push BCLUW past Janesville 25-17 in the first set. 

“My girls just went out and played so amazing,” BCLUW coach Megan Yantis said. “We've had a great couple of days. It was really just making sure we stayed together as a team no matter what happened.”

The Wildcats didn’t go down quietly, taking an early 9-5 lead. Errors on their part erased three leads, while Farnsworth laid down six kills in the second set. This included three of the last BCLUW points to win 25-23. 

“I credit all this to my team,” Farnsworth said. “They do amazing serving, the back row gets every single ball up and Cassie gets us the stuff we need. I just couldn't do it without my team.”

BCLUW took off on a 6-1 before the Wildcats creeped back up with a flurry of kills, accentuated by a few Comet errors. The Comets, however, never felt out of control, simply answering the Janesville comeback with a few more kills from Farnsworth a couple blocks by both Goldie and Virginia Kaisand to seal the deal, 25-19. 

“The biggest thing is we stay composed,” Yantis said. “We haven’t been rattled much all season long. Mentally, we focus on the first team to five, first team to 10. I feel like we do so many little things right and that leads to our success.” 

Farnsworth finished with 15 kills against Janesville, a repeat from their quarterfinal sweep over Holy Trinity the previous night. Peters totaled eight kills. Virginia Kaisand added four kills and three aces. Senior Cassie Nason strung together 22 assists and added nine digs. Senior Klayre Gallentine had 13 digs. 

The Comets (33-10) will look to knock off two-time defending champion Ankeny Christian (39-5) on Thursday in their first championship appearance.