Iowa Western Claims a Pair of National Titles
COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa - Iowa Western Men's Soccer and Volleyball both claimed the NJCAA D1 national title an hour apart from each other on Saturday, November 20th. The 3rd seeded Reiver Men's Soccer team (19-1-1) claimed the program's second championship over 7th seeded Arizona Western (21-1-0) 2-0, on the same ground in Tyler, TX as their first title in 2013. The Reivers, making their second consecutive NJCAA D1 championship final in five months, opened up the scoring in the 13th minute when midfielder Giorgio Probo found the ball just outside of the 18-yard box and one-touched it with his right foot past the outstretched arms of the Matadors goalkeeper.
Forward Ibrahim Conde would give the team some breathing room in the second half when midfielder Edoardo Deglinnocenti hit midfielder Jiwoo Lee with a through-ball towards the far corner of the 18-yard box. Lee would thread the needle across the box past four Matador defenders to a wide-open Conde, who buried the service in the back of the net to give the Reivers a 2-0 lead with under 12 minutes to play.
Iowa Western would go on the defensive for the remainder of the game. Goalkeeper Yuta Ishizuka would face just a pair of shots on goal from the Matadors and managed the defense against nine Arizona Western corners, six of them in the first half.
Giorgio Probo was named the tournament MVP, Ibrahim Conde was selected as the Offensive Player of the Tournament and Mike Brown took home the Coach of the Tournament Award. Conde and Yuta Ishizuka were also named to the all-tournament team.
This is the first national title for Head Coach Mike Brown who just capped his third season with Iowa Western. Brown's career record with IW now moves to 52-2-3 and his teams have never lost a regular-season match.
Iowa Western Volleyball also returned to the NJCAA D1 national tournament final in Hutchinson, KS. The Reivers who claimed the 2020-21 crown, made the national tournament for the program's 16th straight year, but it was the first time as an at-large bid. Selected as the 8th seed, Iowa Western (33-4) swept their opening-round opponent Polk State 3-0, then faced the top-seeded Buccaneers of Blinn College. Head Coach Alicia Williams facing her former coach at IW, Terry Gamble, won a hard-fought first set 32-30 and then cruised the rest of the way, winning sets two and three 25-19 and 25-17. That set up a rematch versus MSU-West Plains in the semi-final. The Reivers avenged a mid-season loss to the Grizzlies, winning 3-1 to set up another regular-season rematch, this time versus New Mexico Military Institute.
The Broncos took set one 25-18, but Iowa Western would even the match, taking set two 25-22. NMMI claimed set number three 25-21, then it was back-in-forth in set four. Iowa Western opened up leading 7-3, but the Broncos battled back to even the game at 14. Down 21-20, the Reivers rattled off three straight points behind kills from Cherlin Antonio and Delaney Esterling with Esterling delivering the final blow to take the set 25-23.
The final set was a thriller, back-and-forth points again, from the 6-6 mark until finally, at 12 all, Trinity Zika set up Maike Bertens for the point, then an attack error by NMMI made it a 14-12 game. Esterling would block the final attack of the Broncos to seal the 15-12 victory in the final set to give Iowa Western back-to-back national titles.
Setter Yadhira Anchante was named the tournament MVP for the second straight year with Bertens and Antonio joining her on the all-tournament team.
Head Coach Alicia Williams was again named the Heidi Cartisser Coach of the Tournament and has been a part of every national title team in Iowa Western Volleyball history (1 as a player ('06), 2 as head coach). Her career coaching record at IW now moves to 335-44 in nine seasons at the helm of the program.