For the third consecutive season, the #9 (2A) Aplington-Parkersburg volleyball team is a state tournament qualifier. They defeated #7 (2A) Riverside 3-2 in Wednesday’s 2A Region 7 Final at Waukee Northwest, as aired on 104.9 KLMJ and RadioOnTheGo’s YouTube channel.
Taking on an undefeated team, the Falcons found themselves trailing on multiple occasions. After the teams split the opening sets with identical 25-21 scores, the Bulldogs pulled out to a 2-1 lead by taking set 3 25-22. AP responded with their most lopsided win of the night, 25-11 in set 4. The offense ramped up, with sophomore outside hitter Jenzen Klooster firing down a career-high 27 terminations.
In a back-and-forth set 5, AP found themselves up early, then down 13-11. Riverside had match point twice, but the Falcons sent it to bonus points to finish it off.
Klooster says it was an inspired performance that she dedicated to her grandmother, the late Marilyn Klooster, a longtime teacher at Aplington-Parkersburg and supporter of all things Falcon Athletics.
“I knew that this is what we wanted, like the team had ups and downs this whole entire season and I knew that we deserved to go here,” Klooster says. “And I was gonna help my team. I had confidence in myself and I had confidence in my team, so I knew we were gonna do that. I was just thinking in the back of my mind like, my grandma, she wants this to happen, she’s gonna do this and so I just wanted that to fill the whole entire team and say those words for her.”
AP coach Candace Kleespies says it was reminiscent of the 2023 regional final against South Hardin in Cedar Falls, where the Falcons also won in five sets.
“I told the girls at the end, that was probably one of the most fun matches I’ve ever been a part of,” Kleespies says. “Just because both sides, we knew we lined up really equal with them coming in. We told them most of the sets are going to be decided by two points. And so after we lost the third set, we told them, we were like, that’s fine. We’re fine. We’re a five-set team. We’ve been here before in this game. We know what it takes. There’s quite a few of those girls that played on that team, and so we told them we just gotta we gotta stay calm, stay collected, we gotta stay disciplined, and we’ll be fine and they did.”
The Falcons are the 7-seed, and will take on 2-seed Dike-New Hartford on Tuesday, November 4 at 2:25 p.m. inside Xtream Arena for a Class 2A quarterfinal.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VwrfAiC7Ig?si=UROtvh0p5DJ2kHD7&w=560&h=315]
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VwrfAiC7Ig?si=UROtvh0p5DJ2kHD7&w=560&h=315]
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=no1hCFIZOUA?si=BOWJ8O8jFqdxbrX9&w=560&h=315]
