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WILTON, Iowa – This is homecoming week at Wilton High School, but it was approximately 50 West Liberty students and a stuffed badger that made the Comet volleyball team feel at home Thursday night.

Dressed as rednecks and hunters, West Liberty’s vocal cheering section paid dividends for the visitors in a 25-23, 25-12, 21-25, 25-23 Cedar Valley Conference win over rival Wilton.

“This is typical at every match,” West Liberty coach Ruben Galvan said. “This is our seventh man on the court. When they show up, we show up to play. They are a good group of kids that come in and support the sport, and I hope people enjoy them.”

Overalls, cowboy and hunting hats aside, the students brought in two corn stalks and junior Hannah Vance’s stuffed badger named “Jedediah.”

During points of the match, student Dillon Christensen raised the badger and his classmates chanted “bad-ger, bad-ger.”

“It’s pretty cool and amazing to have that support,” Vance said. “They always plan it out at school what they’re going to do for the next match.”

On the court, West Liberty starts three freshmen and a sophomore. The Comets were winless earlier this month at the Muscatine Invitational in three matches, but they’ve responded with victories in five of their last six to improve to 7-4 overall and 2-1 in the CVC.

“When we first started in the summer, it was a little shaky,” said libero Julissa Galvan, the team’s lone senior. “We had confidence in the girls that they were going to come up and play harder and harder each time. Everybody has grown as a player.”

It showed early in Thursday’s match. With 12 ties and seven lead changes in the opening game, West Liberty put together three consecutive points off freshman Kennedi Simon’s serve to take a 21-18 lead. Wilton (5-10, 0-3) closed within a point twice, but couldn’t get over the hump as freshman Kristi Feldman’s kill punctuated the game.

West Liberty carried that over to the second game. Vance, who had a match-high 13 kills, had five in the game to help the Comets build a 13-5 advantage and cruise to a 2-0 lead.

Wilton had a response.

Led by a team-high 12 kills from Shelby Broders and nine from Madison Maurer, the Beavers took advantage of the Comets’ shaky passing to win Game 3.

“I have a very determined group of girls,” Wilton coach Andrea Putman said, “and they’ve been working really hard. They weren’t going to go down without a fight.

“I was really proud after Game 2 because that was an ugly game, but we came back and really fought.”

In fact, Wilton had an opportunity to force a fifth game. The Beavers had 15-9 and 23-20 leads in the fourth game before the Comets scored the final five points of the game to take the match.

“We got tight, a little bit tense and made some mistakes that cost us,” Putman said. “We’re making progress. We have lapses every now and then, where we stop talking or the intensity drops off.

“We’re a real young team with three sophomores playing full rotations for us.”

West Liberty setter Shannon Kelly had 32 assists, while Julissa Galvan led the defense with 22 digs. Simon had a team-high five blocks.

“Tonight, I think our girls learned we need to play hard all the time and you can’t let your guard down because teams can sneak up on you,” Coach Galvan said.

Still, he was pleased to get out of town with the win.

“Every victory is big for us,” he said, “because we’re a young team.”

West Liberty 25   25   21   25

Wilton  23   12   25   23

Kills – West Liberty (Hannah Vance 13, Marissa Kelly 9, Kristi Feldman 7, Kennedi Simon 4); Wilton (Shelby Broders 12, Madison Maurer 9, Avery Carter 7, Dakota LaMaack 4). Digs – West Liberty (Julissa Galvan 22); Wilton (Maurer 16, Leah Duffer 11, Carter 11). Assists – West Liberty (Shannon Kelly 32); Wilton (Carlee Grunder 33). Blocks – West Liberty (Simon 5, Feldman 3, Haley Smith 2); Wilton (Grunder 2, Broders 2). Serving – West Liberty (Galvan 22 of 23, 2 aces, Vance 12 of 12, Simon 13 of 14, S. Kelly 15 of 15, 2 aces); Wilton (Duffe 19 of 19, 2 aces, Rachel Kirschbaum 13 of 15, 3 aces, Carter 11 of 13, 2 aces, Grunder 10 of 11, 2 aces).