3A State Recap: Death, Taxes, and HCA Winning State

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The rest of the state in class 3A may be breathing a sigh of relief. Maybe. As Heritage Christian Academy won its fourth straight state title (3 in class 3A), all of the key players who were key contributors on those teams are set to sail off into the sunset. However, will it be a reload or a rebuild? There are players who have been in the program who though didn't see the court as much, have the winning DNA in their system now. Only time will tell, but for now, here is the recap of the Class 3A state tournament.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>I didn't get a chance to do a preview but if you follow my writings you know I would have picked HCA. The big shocker was they lost a match. The final pool play battle went three sets, with Beloit escaping with the victory to pit a three-way tie atop the pool. Heritage would get the top spot with the three-setter and end with five set victories. And Smoke Valley would get the second nod after having the head-to-head win over Beloit. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The second pool would see a Silver Lake team that had been good all year go 3-0 on the day not dropping a set. Their opening match versus Cheney was a great one to start the day with both ending in -23 sets. After the tough defeat, Cheney would rebound to win their later matches, with the third going three sets.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The semifinal would pit Heritage Christian versus Cheney and Silver Lake taking on Smoke Valley. Heritage Christian got it done in two, with matching scores of -17. [player_tooltip player_id='119708' first='Rachel' last='Van Gorp'], who will be heading to Iowa State had a double-double with 11 kills and 11 digs in the match. Setter Anna Schenk dished out 21 assists in the match. Alex Bittner tried to force an upset behind 7 kills and 14 digs.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>We got a great three-setter in the other semifinal. A very tightly fought match with no set being separated by more than three points. The first set went to Silver Lake, which put Smoke Valley in a must-win situation and they didn't flinch, pulling out the second 25-23. [player_tooltip player_id='219951' first='Katja' last='Blanchat'] went off, going for 18 kills and 9 digs to help her team win the third set 25-23 to advance to the state title match.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The championship match appeared to be heading to another classic but between the great play of Heritage Christian and the emotional roller coaster Smoke Valley went through in the semifinal, HCA ran away with the first set 25-9. In the second set, the Valley fared much better but Van Gorp and [player_tooltip player_id='261106' first='Grace' last='Schmedding'] were too much offensively, along with 10 team aces and Heritage would walk away as state champions. Van Gorp, Schmedding, and Schenk were joined on the all-tournament team by [player_tooltip player_id='119704' first='Cy' last='Rae Campbell']. Smoke Valley was represented by [player_tooltip player_id='219951' first='Katja' last='Blanchat'] and [player_tooltip player_id='152836' first='Hope' last='Duncan'].</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The third-place match saw Silver Lake get the sweep over Cheney. [player_tooltip player_id='219726' first='Ella' last='Bolan'] and [player_tooltip player_id='495595' first='Sarah' last='Wehrli'] made the all-tournament team for Silver Lake, while Cheney was represented by [player_tooltip player_id='495598' first='Jailyn' last='Adolph'] and Alex Bittner. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Beloit featured [player_tooltip player_id='119714' first='Mylie' last='Brown'] and [player_tooltip player_id='173375' first='Addison' last='Budke'] on the all-tournament team to round out the bunch. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->