Volleyball 'clinic' will feature Aquinas vs. Mediapolis Monday

by Chris Faulkner

Burlington High School's Johannsen Gym will be the site of a high school volleyball clinic next Monday night. It begins at 7 and volleyball wannabes of all ages are encouraged to attend.

It's more commonly known as the Class 1A regional semifinal match between Fort Madison Aquinas (rated ninth in the state and 35-2-2) and Mediapolis (sixth in the state and 29-4-5). Mediapolis handed the Lady Dons one of their two losses.

Fans of each school and neutral fans can expect to see textbook volleyball, with multiple offenses, quick sets, crash-and-burn digs and solid serving.

Mediapolis coach Dennis Jandrey broke it down into a simple formula for success. "The team that wins is the one that takes care of its side of the net."

"I concur," Aquinas coach Mike Helling said. "The last time we played them, we didn't take care of our side of the net." That was in the finals of the Southeast Iowa Superconference Tournament the first of October at Southeastern Community College's Loren Walker Arena.

"We can't determine what happens on their side," Coach Helling said. "We need to continue our strong serving and hope that our passes are there like they've been. If we can get our passes and get our offenses set up, we'd like to think we'd have a good shot with them."

Mediapolis is coming off a tough sweep of Marquette.

"I thought Marquette stepped their game up and they played well," Coach Jandrey said. "A lot of those kids came with an attitude that they were going to give it everything they had. They played hard all night long. There's something about those kids (at Marquette) that they're hard to beat.

"I thought we did what we had to do," Jandrey said. "It was enough to get us into a regional semifinal."

Jandrey said Aquinas has changed some things since the first meeting.

"They're trying to mix up their offense a little more," he said. "They've got some other things going. They've played good volleyball.

"I thought they did a very good job against New London."

For the first time, Mediapolis will have to play a post-season match on a neutral court, but even Aquinas only traveled once so far.

"It's at Burlington, which is going to be a new experience forboth teams," Jandrey said. "It's who comes in and takes care of their sides of the night. When you have a 6- and 9-rated team, it comes down to whoever takes care of their side of the net."

Helling said, "We're going to have to play every point and every change of possession; stay with it and finish it to the end of the match."

Both teams have a well-balanced attack and a strong setter. Both teams block well and play good defense.

"They run an uptempo offense," Helling added. "Sometimes it's a matter of guessing and hope we guess right."

For the Dons' part, Helling said, "We plan on showing them more than what we did last time."

Helling likes the clinic analogy.

"This will be a good match for kids of any school to watch," he said.

Bring your notebooks and pens.