Tawa’s Dots: A high school volleyball state title smorgasbord

This is “Dots,” VolleyballMag.com’s weekly look at 10 things in high school volleyball, past or present, that interest me and hopefully will interest you. Look for Dots through the last high school state championship in November.

• Western Christian (43-5) edged Dike-New Hartford (44-3) in an epic Iowa 2A championship match on Thursday. The Wolfpack trailed 13-9 and 14-11 in the deciding set before rallying to topple the top-seeded and two-time defending champion Wolverines.

The title was No. 18 for Western Christian, dating back to 1989. DNH had been seeking its ninth state title all-time.

For the past 13 years, only Western Christian and DNH have won 2A.

Tammi Veerbeek, the head coach at Western Christian since 1999, had been 0-6 in previous state championship matchups with DNH and coach Diane Harms. Veerbeek now has overseen 13 state championship efforts.

Stella Winterfield, who had 24 kills and 15 digs, was named state tournament MVP. Senior OH Abby VerBurg had a team-high 26 kills, including back-to-back terminations to fight off two match points.

Payton Petersen had 26 kills, 11 digs and three aces to lead Dike-New Hartford. Twin Jadyn Petersen added 15 kills, nine digs and five aces.

In other Iowa finals, Cassidy Hartman had 24 kills and 15 digs to lead Iowa City Liberty past Pleasant Valley in four sets in 5A, Maci Kadlec and Libby Fandel teamed for 43 kills and 32 digs as Cedar Rapids Xavier got by Clear Creek Amana in four in Class 4A, Ava Schubert produced 17 kills and nine digs to help Davenport Assumption win state for the first time, in sweeping fashion over Sioux Center in 3A, and Macey Nehring, Anna Weathers and Carley Craighead teamed for 53 kills and MVP Katie Quick contributed 52 assists, eight kills and 15 digs in Ankeny Christian’s five-set win in Class 1A over Gladsbrook-Reinbeck. Ava Wright had 25 kills in the loss.

• In October, 2011, I traveled to Hull, Iowa, to watch Western Christian play a home match. The Wolfpack dominated, of course, but the story was as much about the town, the coach and the way of life in northwest Iowa than it was about the match versus Spencer. It is such a worthwhile read that I am reproducing it here:

Western Christian Win Is True To Farm

Hull, IA: Western Christian won its Lakes Conference match versus Spencer Tuesday night, 25-7, 25-10, 25-9, no surprise since the Wolfpack have never lost a conference match. 31-0 in…