On a night when rivalry flair added more juice to the Class 5A regional championship game, the Iowa City West volleyball team advanced to the Iowa high school state volleyball tournament with a 3-1 victory (25-19, 25-22, 22-25, 25-17) over Iowa City Liberty on Oct. 28.

The Trojans (27-5) earned their first state tournament berth since 2016.

"It means a lot for our team, and I'm really happy it was this group of girls because we all love each other so much and we work really well together," said Iowa City West freshman Cyan Blommer. "I think we had to fight really hard because we knew they wanted to win and we knew they weren't going to let up, so we had to keep going and not let up."

The Trojans and Lightning — both led by first-year head coaches — were pitted against one another for

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