What Teams Could Play Cinderella in Iowa’s Road To State?

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The brackets are out, the road to Xtream Arena is paved.&nbsp; 40 teams will head to Coralville to kickoff the last week of October.&nbsp; There are familiar names at the top of their regional, but who could play the spoiler, or should be say the Cinderella.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Class 5A</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Sioux City East - 18-10 </strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Sioux City schools have been on the rise and Sioux City East might have the best chance to make some postseason noise. They have faced some Central Iowa powers, losing to Ankeny Centennial and Dowling Catholic.&nbsp; They do have wins over Iowa City Liberty and Norwalk.&nbsp; Junior [player_tooltip player_id='215439' first='Hollie' last='Peterson'] has had a big year with over 250 assists, 154 digs, and 112 kills.&nbsp; Their route will have to go through Waukee Northwest most likely who is looking to get back to Xtream after qualifying for the first time last season.&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Iowa City Liberty - 18-21</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Yes, Liberty could be a spoiler, a Cinderella team this year even though they are the returning state champs.&nbsp; They are in the same regional as Ankeny who has been battling some injuries this season.&nbsp; Liberty did defeat Ankeny in their most recent meeting at the Waverly-Shell Rock Tournament.&nbsp; Ankeny does lead the series 2-1 on the season.&nbsp; The Bolts have a young squad who have really grown this season, but a lot of their success is behind junior setter/attacker [player_tooltip player_id='215429' first='Asta' last='Hildebrand'].&nbsp; She is over 300 kills and assists, she does it all.&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Class 4A</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Norwalk - 18-12</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Norwalk was on the bubble in Class 4A when it came to being a top regional seed, but if they make it to the regional final and seeding plays out they will need to head to North Polk.&nbsp; This would be a dynamite matchup with two powerful Central Iowa powers.&nbsp; The senior class for Norwalk has been having quite the year with attacker [player_tooltip player_id='168192' first='Noelle' last='Sutcliffe'] with 326 kills, Ava McKay and Ava Johnson are both over 100 kills, and [player_tooltip player_id='233265' first='Grace' last='Dehmer'] with over 300 digs.&nbsp; The Warriors have played a rugged schedule with plenty of ranked teams.&nbsp; They will have the Little Hawkeye tournament Thursday night which will be a fun night of volleyball.&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Sioux City Heelan is going for their third year straight state tournament appearance, but will have to go on the road to Lewis Central.&nbsp; They did it last year and won when they had to go on the road to a regional final and defeated Indianola.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Class 3A</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Center Point - Urbana - 23-8</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Mid-Prairie has the top seed in this regional, but it's loaded.&nbsp; On the other side of the bracket is CPU and they have some big wins on the season.&nbsp; They have defeated Cedar Falls twice and have five set wins over Marion and West Delaware.&nbsp; Arkansas commit, [player_tooltip player_id='215389' first='Sydney' last='Maue'] swings big from the right side, but this is a well balanced attack as this squad has five attackers with over 100 kills.&nbsp; This would be an electric regional final.&nbsp; However, don't sleep on Albia either who has a 19-9 record right now.&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Class 2A</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Lisbon and Iowa City Regina</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Class 2A might be the toughest class to split out of all of them.&nbsp; With the amount of teams in about 40 square miles of the Cedar Valley area makes it very interesting.&nbsp; In Region 7, there is Denver who will be going for their fourth straight state tournament - they know how to win in the postseason.&nbsp; On the other side of the bracket is Lisbon and Iowa City Regina.&nbsp; Lisbon has been in Class 1A in years past and are 23-5 with [player_tooltip player_id='206559' first='Ava' last='Czarnecki'] having over 400 kills.&nbsp; They defeated Regina in a five set thriller at the end of September and a potential rematch would be electric.&nbsp; Regina is still young with their top point scorers being [player_tooltip player_id='261094' first='Reese' last='Naeve'] and [player_tooltip player_id='455710' first='Kiley' last='Devery'].&nbsp; Senior setter Sydney Wagner is on track to get over 1,000 assists in this season alone.&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Treynor has a top seed in Region 3, however on the other side of the bracket is Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont where [player_tooltip player_id='215426' first='Molly' last='Shafer'] and [player_tooltip player_id='216055' first='Kate' last='Shafer'], the UNI commits, know how to win in big matches. Pleasantville will be in the hunt as well.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Class 1A </strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>St. Ansgar - 20-6</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>St. Ansgar front loaded their schedule with some top teams in Northeast Iowa and have been on a tear the past month.&nbsp; Their top attackers include Natalie Bork, [player_tooltip player_id='552892' first='Lindsay' last='Kruse'], and [player_tooltip player_id='753895' first='Ava' last='Falk'] who all have over 100 kills.&nbsp; Aspen Falk has nearly 500 assists on the season and Kinsey Anderson with nearly 250 digs.&nbsp; If they are able to get through their side of the bracket they would run into perennial Class 1A power Janesville.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->