The Norwalk girls soccer team is headed back to the State Tournament and hungry for more.

The Warriors are the number three seed in the Class 2A state tourney bracket and will take a 16-3 record into Tuesday’s quarterfinal match against sixth-seed Council Bluffs Lewis Central, which is 15-5. The Warriors and Titans take to the pitch at 1:15 p.m. on Field 7 of the James. W. Cownie Soccer Complex in Des Moines.

The Warriors also played at state a year ago and defeated North Scott 3-2 in the first round before losing a 1-0 decision to Dallas Center-Grimes in the semifinals.

Norwalk head coach Andrew Messer believes his squad is capable of an even deeper run this time around, noting that the 2022 State Tournament is a culmination of four years of hard work by the team’s 10 senior players.

“The seniors this year, they understood what they had to do their freshman year – quite a few of them were playing their freshman year,” Messer said. “Then their sophomore year COVID hit, and their junior year we definitely put everything together and we just ended up short. This year is their year to kind of put it all the way through… It’s really exciting.”

Norwalk is led statistically by senior standout Jojo Bice, who will continue her soccer career at Iowa State University in the fall. Bice ranks third in Class 2A with 43 goals scored and is also among the team leaders with 11 assists. Freshman Braelyn Clark has posted 12 goals and 11 assists for the Warriors while four other girls have found the back of the net at least five times.

Messer says that his team’s increased scoring ability this spring should give them a better chance to make a deep tournament run.

“Last year our issue was scoring goals, and this year we’ve definitely fixed that,” he said. “We’ve always had a strong defense and last year DC-G got one by us really quickly [at state] and then we turned on the heat but just couldn’t find the back of the net. We definitely had the opportunity to win that game – we just fell a little bit short – and I think that we’ve fixed those things that held us back last year.”

Lewis Central, which is making its sixth consecutive state appearance in girls soccer, won three straight state championships from 2016 to 2018. Norwalk hosted the Titans on May 13 this season and won 3-0 in a 60-minute contest.

Tuesday’s winner will advance to the semifinal round and play either 2nd-seeded Waverly-Shell Rock (16-1) or 7th-seeded North Scott (12-5) on Thursday at 1:00 p.m. The 2A championship game is slated for Saturday at 12:30.

Tuesday’s game will be broadcast live on KNIA 94.3 and is also available for free on the KNIA-KRLS mobile app.