Few Iowa high school sports feature more dynasties than volleyball.

Tripoli has won eight of the past 10 Class 1-A state titles. In 2-A, Western Christian has claimed seven of the past nine crowns. Dubuque Wahlert opened the 2000s by winning six straight titles. And Ankeny has won four of the past six 4-A championships.

That doesn’t leave much celebrating on championship night for the other 371 Iowa high schools, does it?

It’s a sport that demands repetition. It rewards teams that have learned the skills and then can run a system seemingly while blindfolded. The great programs like Western Christian function like well-oiled machines, and it seems that you just plug in a few new names each year.

In western Iowa, this theory holds true as well, as many of the same schools are fixtures at the state tournament each year. Last year’s WI state qualifiers were Council Bluffs Abraham Lincoln in 4-A, Sioux City Heelan in 3-A, IKM-Manning in 2-A and Treynor in 1-A.

Treynor has reached state in 13 of the past 17 years, Manning or IKM-Manning has advanced four straight years, Heelan has qualified 12 straight seasons and Abraham Lincoln advanced for the second time in three years.

Based on this information, it shouldn’t come as a surprise then that those four schools are all high in The World-Herald’s first set of western Iowa volleyball ratings of the season. Heelan (Class 4-A/3-A) and IKM-Manning (Class 2-A/1-A) are the ratings leaders. The ratings reflect play through Wednesday night.

At Heelan, Mary Miller takes the reins from former coach Lori Slight, who is now the head coach at Creston High School. Miller was a collegiate head coach at Briar Cliff for 14 seasons.

The Crusaders return a first-team All-Western Iowa setter in 5-foot-7 senior Leisa McClintock. Also back are returning starters Katelyn Walsh, a 5-11 senior outside hitter, and Natalie Vondrak, a 6-1 junior middle hitter.

Among the small schools, Carroll Kuemper and Treynor also drew strong consideration for the top spot, which goes to IKM-Manning. From last year’s 2-A quarterfinal team, the Wolves return their top setter (5-5 senior Ashley Lage) along with three of their top four kill leaders: 5-11 senior Alex Halbur (184 kills, .240 kill efficiency), 5-10 junior Liz Halbur (175 kills, .322) and 6-1 sophomore Kaylee Blake (132 kills, .205).

IKM-Manning’s losses this season are to 4-A No. 15 Ames and Cedar Falls, an unrated 4-A school.

In addition to Heelan’s McClintock, four other first-team All-WI performers are back this season: Council Bluffs Thomas Jefferson senior Rachele Harrill in 4-A/3-A, seniors Kirsten Van Zuiden of Carroll Kuemper and Kaitlin Floerchinger of Treynor in 2-A, and Stanton senior Kadie Subbert in 1-A.

The 5-7 Harrill suffered a torn ACL in her right knee during a soccer game last spring. She has said she might return late in the season, but she’ll be far less than full strength if she does.

The 5-11 Van Zuiden averaged 2.9 kills per set last year with .240 efficiency. She also ranked second on the team in digs and blocks as Kuemper shared the Hawkeye Ten Conference title with Atlantic. Kuemper was swept by large-school No. 4 Carroll in its season opener.

Treynor has bounced between 1-A and 2-A in recent years, and is back in Class 2-A this season. At 6-1, Floerchinger will be a force in the middle following a junior year in which she averaged 3.3 kills per set with .280 efficiency, and also led the team with 113 blocks.

Few would argue that the best player in the Corner Conference this season will be Stanton’s Subbert. The 5-11 middle hitter last season tripled the kill total of any of her teammates with 4.2 per set along with a sparkling .488 kill efficiency. She also paced the Viqueens in digs and blocks.

Five others are back after earning second-team All-Western Iowa honors last season: 5-8 senior Brittni Donaldson of Sioux City North in 4-A/3-A; 5-11 senior Katie Kallin of OA-BCIG and 5-9 senior Sarah Klahn of Treynor in 2-A; and 5-11 junior Katie Dentlinger of Coon Rapids-Bayard and 6-0 senior Samantha Weed of Bedford in 1-A.

It will be interesting to see if any western Iowa schools can break through and make their first trip to state. Sioux City East in 4-A and Stanton in 1-A immediately come to mind as candidates to do so.

Contact the writer:

444-1055, kevin.white@owh.com

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