The 2024 Norwalk volleyball season came to a close on Tuesday night with a loss to Pella in the Class 4A regional finals. The 11th-ranked Warriors lost in three sets (25-21, 25-20, 25-17), but played some of their best volleyball against the fifth-ranked Dutch.

This was especially true in the first two sets, which featured a combined 25 ties. Norwalk led 17-16 in the opener and set two was tied at 17. Five weeks earlier, the Warriors had few answers for the Dutch in a three-set Little Hawkeye Conference defeat. Tuesday’s postseason rematch showed just how much Coach John Fulton’s team has progressed this fall after graduating seven seniors from last year’s first-ever Norwalk state volleyball qualifier.

The Warriors finished 28-14 overall, setting a single-season school record for wins, and Fulton tells KNIA/KRLS Sports that seniors Emmory Toppenberg, Dakota Poen, Addie Fisher and Liz Iverson played a vital role in raising the level of this year’s squad.

“Hats off to our seniors – Emmory, Dakota, Liz, Addie; I think they knew that people were maybe counting us out,” Fulton said. “I don’t think there (were) high expectations maybe as there was last year, but those four came in and said, ‘This is our goal. We’re going to reach the state tournament, we’re going to reach the regional final,’ and they did it. They set that momentum in practice and in the summer to make sure that everybody knew that we have the pieces. It was just going to take a little bit of time to grow, and I think you saw that this year is just that continual growth.”

Fulton says that this year’s team had a lot of fun, loved coming to practice and being around each other. A positive trait of the team, he adds, was their ability to shake off a tough loss quickly. The future of the program remains bright as the Warriors will return freshman kill leader Elle Hatlevig, sophomore assist leader Hadley Michael and junior block leader Jillian Hammond next season, along with sophomore libero Reese Heim and other talented players.