Norwalk’s dreams of a first-ever State Volleyball Tournament appearance were put on hold Tuesday night following a hard-fought, three-set loss to Sioux City Bishop Heelan in the Class 4A, Region 1 final at Norwalk.
The 10th-ranked Warriors started out hot by taking a 14-6 lead in set one, but the Crusaders established their potent block during a 15-3 response and used several big kills from sophomore Maliyah Hacker to win 25-21.
The next two sets were tightly-contested throughout, featuring 18 total ties. Bishop Heelan, though, was tougher at crunch time and finished both sets on Hacker kills to win 25-21, 25-22, clinching the program’s 23rd trip to the state tournament.
The No. 14 Crusaders improved to 24-14 and will face top-ranked Cedar Rapids Xavier (30-4) in a 4A state quarterfinal match Monday, October 31, at Coralville’s Xtream Arena.
The Warriors, meanwhile, finished 24-11 in head coach John Fulton’s first year at the school. Fulton says that Norwalk lost to a very good team and he was extremely proud of his players fighting for every single point of the match.
“You can’t say that we didn’t go and out compete,” he said. “That’s just part of who we are, part of our culture. We’re not going to give up easy points. We’re not going to back down. Even down two sets, we could’ve stopped playing, we could’ve given up, but that’s just not who we are.”
Junior outside hitter Noelle Sutcliffe had some big kills during the last two sets for Norwalk, which held its final leads at 16-15 in set two and 15-13 in set three. Bishop Heelan had just a little more firepower overall at the net and was able to answer every Warrior challenge.
Norwalk tied state qualifier Indianola for this year’s Little Hawkeye Conference regular season title and played in a regional final for the second straight year. The Warriors will lose just two seniors off the squad and should return all but one of their stat leaders in 2023.
Fulton is proud of the team’s accomplishments and is looking forward to what the future holds.
“I know these girls kind of set their expectations to get to the state tournament; to play in the game to get to the state tournament, so they reached that,” Fulton said. “Our seniors did a great job all year leading us. Kelsey Dammeier [and block leader] Sami Aagard did a fantastic job for us – in practice, in games – and we’ve got a lot coming back and we’ve got a lot to be proud of (going) into next year.”
Norwalk was one of four Little Hawkeye Conference teams playing in a 4A regional final Tuesday. Indianola defeated ADM 3-0 to advance to state, while Norwalk, Dallas Center-Grimes and Oskaloosa all lost in three sets.