4A Recap, Reaction: No. 1 Clippers Sail to Victory

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong><em>Get 30% off your first billing cycle with code:&nbsp;howe30&nbsp;in the coupon code area</em></strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>CORALVILLE -</strong> Clear Creek Amana didn't need to dig too deep in finding a cautionary tail about letting up as the favorite. The Clippers opened the state tournament Monday here at Xtream Arena against Sergeant Bluff-Luton, which upset top-seeded Xavier in last year's opening round.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>"We may be the top seed, but you've always got to play your best because you don't know who can beat you," CCA senior setter [player_tooltip player_id='243457' first='Emily' last='Henderson'] said. "That's an important thing to keep in mind because everybody's good. The eighth seed is good. We came in my freshman year as a lower seed and made it all the way to the championship game. You never know what can happen." </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>It looked early in Monday's match like the Clippers weren't so much overconfident as they were nervous. SBL took advantage of that for most of the first set before CCA pulled out a 25-23 win. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>"Nerves. We needed to get settled," Clipper coach Jackie Clubb said. "We understood that they gave us a good game, but we try to focus on ourselves in those situations, try not to get too worked up, and we move on. They played well." </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Move on is what the top seed did. Finishing off the first set created momentum that carried over to a 25-9 win in Set 2. It completed the sweep with a 25-21, third-set win.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>"After we won that first set, we all decided that we needed to start off better because we know we can," CCA middle hitter [player_tooltip player_id='493660' first='Bailey' last='Simpson'] said. "We just needed to swing away and put all of the aggression on the ball. That's what got us going." </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Simpson's 10 kills were second on the team to [player_tooltip player_id='361168' first='Averie' last='Lower']'s 17. Henderson handed out 35 assists to go with eight digs and four kills, while [player_tooltip player_id='516002' first='Julia' last='Schlarbaum'] played an all-around strong match with 12 digs, six kills and four assists. Simpson had three blocks. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='389844' first='Bre' last='VanDenTop'] and Leiana Eldridge each recorded 11 kills for Sergeant Bluff-Luton. Bailey Ball dished out 28 assists and came up with nine digs. Katilyn Hardie was credited with 11 digs. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:embed {"url":"https://youtu.be/vANo_GlEQD8","type":"video","providerNameSlug":"youtube","responsive":true,"className":"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"} --> <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://youtu.be/vANo_GlEQD8 </div></figure> <!-- /wp:embed -->