CORALVILLE, Iowa – Denver had to go to great lengths in a tension-filled match to repeat as the Class  2A volleyball champion.

   The top-seeded Cyclones held on against the attacks of hard-hitting Bailey Boeve and beat Hinton in five sets to notch their 50thvictory of the season against only one loss. They did it by spreading the wealth among their hitters and getting another standout game from setter Channing Johnson, who was named the all-tournament captain.

   The scores went 25-22, 26-28, 21-25, 25-18, 15-11. The Cyclones earned this one.

   That offensive balance was needed to counter Boeve, a Creighton University recruit who pounded 38 kills, most of them absolute rockets, and came up with 13 digs. But it wasn’t quite enough and the third-seeded Blackhawks (30-3) finished as the state runners-up for the second time in three years.

   Sophomore Adeana Murch led the Denver attack with 21 kills, while Mylee Thurm and Bailey Mullihan added 14 each. Johnson put together an impressive all-around line with 42 assists, six kills and 17 digs. She wound up with 113 assists for the tournament.

   Thurm and Mullihan also made the all-tournament team, along with Boeve and Hinton’s Ellie Friessen, who had six kills, two solo blocks and five block assists. Boeve’s 38 kills were three short of the 2A tournament record that EBF’s Molly Shafer set last year. The Hinton star finished the week with a tournament-leading 96 kills.

   Hinton rallied from a 13-5 deficit to win the second set, finishing it with three straight Boeve kills. The Blackhawks then charged back after trailing 15-10 to take a 2-1 lead in the match, but ran out of comebacks after that. Denver cruised to the win after building a 19-10 lead in the fourth set, then went ahead to stay in the decisive set with five straight points before Mullihan finished it off with a big hit.

Ryanne Brubaker from Grundy Center and Abby Jensen from Dike-New Hartford rounded out the all-tournament team.