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MUSCATINE, Iowa – A scrappy Williamsburg team caught a break on an official’s error in the second game and used powerful serving and never-quit play to top Muscatine 2-0 in the championship game of its own volleyball tournament on Saturday.

The Muskies, 4-1 on the day, had to come back in two different matches in order to reach the championship, but didn’t have enough left against the Raiders.

“I’m very proud of the girls for coming back,” first-year head coach Laura Proffitt said. “It shows we are mentally getting tougher and correcting some of the mistakes we made in the Bettendorf game. The girls did a good job.”

Muscatine led Williamsburg, 15-14, in the second game of the match when the Raiders’ Rachel Snyder came up to serve.

However, she had served before the last Muskie sideout and it wasn’t noticed by the official scorer. Behind Snyder, Williamsburg went on a five-point run, including an ace serve, that put the Raiders ahead 20-15.

The Muskies never recovered after that.

“If the scorer doesn’t catch it and doesn’t alert the referee, that’s what we have to go off of,” Proffitt said after being alerted to the error following the match.

The tournament was Williamsburg’s first live action this season.

“We were a little nervous coming in,” Williamsburg coach Emily Nordheim said, “but today was great for us. We played Muscatine in the championship game of the summer league in Iowa City. It was fitting to play them in the championship of their own tournament.”

According to senior hitter Emily Hasken, Muscatine had defeated Williamsburg in the title game of the summer league tournament.

“We always played them in the championship and beat them,” Hasken said. “I felt we could have won.” 

But Muscatine had little answer for the power serving of Mackenzie Bigbee, who wreaked havoc with her huge jump serve. She was 14-for-16 serving with five aces.

“She’s a great player,” Proffitt said of Bigbee. “When she got on a serving run in the first game, that hurt us, but we did a good job of recognizing and adjusting against her.”

Muscatine had an outstanding serving day in all five of its matches. The Muskies were led by Hasken, who was 52-of-56 serving with 11 aces.

“Towards the end of the day, I felt my serving got worse,” Hasken said. “I was tired and missing them, or not hitting as hard. Whenever I practice, I need to work on being more accurate and keep that through all of my games.”

Proffitt said serving is one of her team’s strong points.

“We have girls with tough, hard serves and we have girls who can serve it short,” Proffitt said. “It will take you a long way. In our big wins, we went on some big serving runs.”

Williamsburg (5-0) is not ranked yet, but Proffitt said that they should be.

“Williamsburg is a scrappy team,” Proffitt said. “They get to every ball. I think we are, too. But we made it difficult, especially in game two when we were sending them too many free balls. Our girls were aggressive, but we were sending too many free balls.”

West Liberty finishes 0-3 at Muscatine Invitational

Coach Ruben Galvan’s young West Liberty team left the tournament without a victory after suffering 2-0 losses to Muscatine, Camanche and DeWitt Central. The Muskies handed the Comets a 21-16, 21-11 loss.

“Muscatine’s an aggressive serving team,” Galvan said. “We struggled a little on passing, but I think we did a lot of nice things. We had four freshmen on the court, so this was a learning experience for us.”

Coach Galvan’s daughter, senior Julissa Galvan, has made the switch from setter to libero this year.

“We wanted to open up an opportunity to a girl who has worked hard during the off-season,” coach Galvan said, “who is now our setter, Shannon Kelly, and she is doing a great job.”

Kennedi Simon led West Liberty with five kills, four blocks and was 8-for-10 serving with an ace in the three games.

The Comets also suffered 21-8, 21-14 and 21-14, 21-18 losses to the Indians and Sabers to end their tourney.

“Like I told the kids, we grew a lot today,” Galvan said. “They learned a lot and will put into practice and get better. We are going to walk out of here with our shoulders up.

“At times we looked good.”

Muscatine results

Muscatine def. West Liberty 21-16, 21-11

Muscatine def. DeWitt Cent. 21-12, 21-12

Muscatine def. Camanche 14-21, 21-15, 15-13

Semifinal

Muscatine def. Burlington 21-25, 25-20, 15-10

Final

Williamsburg def. Muscatine 25-21, 25-16

 Statistics for Muscatine

Kills - Haylie Franklin 40, Emily Hasken 22, Allison Curry 18, Tia Hagy 12.

Digs - Jordan Walgren 76, Franklin 63, Natalie Pestka 23, Ashley Hogenson 22.

Serving - Hasken 52-56, 11 aces; Curry 40-44, 4 aces; Franklin 36-39, 8 aces; Hogenson 30-31; Walgren 25-30, 5 aces; Julie Wunder 17-22.

Assists - Wunder 67.

Blocks - Franklin 6, Hasken 5.

Muscatine record - 4-2.

 West Liberty results

Muscatine def. West Liberty 21-16, 21-11

Camanche def. West Liberty 21-8, 21-14

DeWitt Central def. West Liberty 21-14, 21-18

Statistics for West Liberty

Kills - Hannah Vance 7, Hailey Smith 4, Sydney Warson 2, Julissa Galvan 2, Kennedi Simon 5, Kristi Feldman 1, Marissa Kelly 5, Shannon Kelly 3.

Blocks - Smith 1, K. Simon 4, S. Kelly 2.

Serving - K. Simon 8-10, 1 ace; Feldman 9-11, 2 aces; M. Kelly 13-16, 3 aces; S. Kelly 10-10, 2 aces.

West Liberty record - 1-3.