Waukee Punches ticket to 5A State tournament

Regional Final between #7 Urbandale and # 8Waukee Tonight, someone is going to punch their ticket to State. Both teams are look locked in and ready to go during the pregame warm up at the Urbandale gym. This game is expected to go the distance as both teams have electric offensive weapons. Both teams also have defenses that seem to suck up everything that comes their way. Both teams planned to lean on senior leadership to lead them to the promise land. Urbandale is led by a duo of senior setters in Mylea Cole and Megan Monroe to the battle along with a senior Libero Sydney Smetzer and senior weapons in Brooke Dannenfeldt and Jayden Walter. Waukee looks to invade the castle with Senior weapons in Haley Bush, Maggie Clark and Megan Severson. Senior libero Avery Showalter looks to lead her defense to a win while Senior setter Kelsey Plumb looks to run her offense to a victory. Urbandale Waukee have other key players in the underclassmen army. Representing Urbandale is sophomore Madi Lynch, Jayden Walter and Rachel Brockney. Waukee brings a few weapons themselves in Kate Nelson and Layanna Green. The crowd in the gym is really in for a treat tonight. <h2>Game 1</h2> Urbandale answers the call right out of the gate with a first ball kill, while Layanna Green and Haley Bush answer with a pair of kills to jump out to. 3-1 lead early in the first. Early in game 1 Waukee puts a run together that had Bush tallying 3 kills. Urbandale slowly clawed back and with a couple Waukee errors took the lead at 10-8. Layanna Green with a monster kill pulls Waukee even at 11’s with a Kate Nelson kill taking them to a 12-11 lead. Kate Nelson and Brook Dannenfeldt kept trading kills all the way to 13-13. With a quick ace by Sydney Smetzer of Urbandale the J Hawks led 15-13. Urbandale led by one or two points for the second half of the game. Waukee closed the gap to 16-18 off an Urbandale Service error which was their 5thof the first game. With a 20-16 lead Urbandale’s Rachel Brockney was filling the stat sheets with kills and serving Waukee into out of system situations. Waukee was slowly chipping away at Urbandale’s lead but with service errors and tentative attacking the lead was growing for Urbandale at 23-17. Waukee still had some life with middle Layanna Green taking advantage of every set she got. With a kill by Kate nelson and a couple Urbandale errors, Waukee found themselves within 2 at 21-23. Coach Lynch called a timeout at 17-23 to find her warriors tied at 23 in 6 quick points and with a kill by Layanna green sitting on game point and eventually winning the game on an 8-point run with an Urbandale error 25-23. <h2>Game 2</h2> To start game 2 both teams came out strong scoring points on first ball kills. Haley bush started to turn it on in the second game while Sydney Smetzer kept Urbandale close with solid serve receive and stellar hustle. Waukee jumped out to a 7-2 lead off a Haley bush kill and a Layanna Green ace. Maggie Clark wanted to get in the action with a kill of her own while Kelsey Plumb served an ace to get Waukee to a 9-3 lead before Coach Baethke called a timeout. Both teams continued to battle, Waukee just seemed to be getting the points as they increased their lead to 11-3. Urbandale scored 2 quick points before Maggie Clark added another kill to get the score to 13-5. Megan Severson got a point with a bomb from the right side. Once again Urbandale refused to go away and kept chipping away at the lead and after an ace by Megan Monroe the lead was cut to 10-13. But with 2 quick kills by Kate Nelson the lead was back to 15-11. With Urbandale continuing to battle, two hitting errors by Waukee got the J-Hawks within 2 at 13-15. After a coach Lynch timeout Layanna Green and Kate Nelson combined for a stuff block to stop the Urbandale run. Waukee added a kill and dump kill by Kelsey Plumb to open an 18-13 gap. After some great rallies and back and forth scoring Urbandale was building momentum closing the game to 18-21 before a Kelsey Plumb dump kill got the warriors back a point at 22-18 and with a service ace Kelsey plumb found herself serving for game point. Urbandale was still not willing to give in as they scored two quick points getting them within striking distance at 20-22. With some crazy defense and smart attacking Waukee pulls away to take game 2 25-20. <h2>Game 3</h2> With a 2-0 lead going into the third game Waukee looked poised and ready to punch their ticket but Urbandale looked prepared to battle and take the next 3 games. With smart net play by Layanna Green and a strong service game by Kate Nelson the warriors jumped out to another early lead at 5-2. Jayden Walter stopped that run with a huge solo block and after another hitting error found Urbandale within 1 at 4-5. With a crafty tip in the middle by Maggie Clark, Waukee found themselves in with a 3-point lead at 10-7. Tallying a kill by Rachel Brockney Urbandale closed the gap to 2. Back and forth errors caused both teams struggled a little to get their offense consistent but with a Layanna Green solo block and quick kill out of the middle Waukee pushed forward to grab a 17-11 lead. After a coach Baethke timeout. Jayden Walter comes up with a huge solo block to stop the run at 13-18. Urbandale clawed away and kept chipping away one point at a time and closed the distance to 15-18 before Maggie Clark came up with a huge solo block. Kesley Plumb drew up an overload play to the left on serve receive, setting up Haley Bush with no block and a bomb down the line for a 21-16 lead. Waukee never looked back coming up with huge blocks and tough serves to take the regional final in the 3rdgame 25-16 punching their ticket to the state tournament winning the match in 3.