Three-peat!!! Wolverines rally past Western Christian for third straight 2A crown

CEDAR RAPIDS — For about one and one-half sets, Dike-New Hartford’s Class 2A state volleyball final against Western Christian looked much like the first two sets of the Wolverines’ match against the Wolfpack a year ago. That’s the bad news. The good news is that the final outcome looked the same as last year’s match as well.
    Friday the top-ranked Wolverines wrapped up their third straight 2A state championship with a four-set victory over second-ranked Western. The title is the 10th in Dike and Dike-New Hartford history.
    “I’m kind of in shock right now,” Wolverine senior Kristi Koch said after the match. “It hasn’t really hit me yet, but it’s really exciting.”
    Wolverine coach Diane Harms talked about how each of the team’s titles has been different.    
    “Every time we play in the championship match you hope that you play well, that you step up, and they did that, they found a way to be successful,” she said.
    On the other side of the coin was Western Christian coach Tammy Verbeek, whose team has been the title-match victim of each of the Wolverines’ recent championships.
 

For more of this story, see the Nov. 21 Grundy Register.