NEW SHARON – Experience paid dividends for North Mahaska Tuesday as the Warhawks picked up another South Iowa Cedar League win 3-0 over Tri-County. The Warhawks won by set scores of 25-9, 25-14, and 25-12.
North Mahaska’s roster lists seven juniors and a senior while Tri-County has 11 sophomores and freshmen and just one senior.
“It’s really hard to play good volleyball against teams that aren’t good passers,” said NM coach Jim Woods. “Yes, we spend lots of time practicing aggressive serving, but I can’t contribute all of their passing miscues to our serving.”
North Mahaska was also coming off a tough five-set match the night before against HLV, one of the top teams in the league. Tri-County is winless on the season.
After rolling to the win in the first set, Tri-County provided more of a challenge in the final two sets but was unable to make a solid challenge to the more experienced Warhawk squad.
North Mahaska picked up 16 points off service aces. Layla Hargis led with five and Alyssa Scheihing recorded four. Macy Schmidt recorded two kills for Tri-County to lead the offense along with Chloe Zittergruen had two assists. The Trojans earned two service aces on 31-of-39 serving. Alyssa Conrad and Grace Randall each had one service ace.
“We did play fairly solid ball control volleyball tonight, which is the key to any team’s success,” said Woods. “When we go to Montezuma (Sept. 24), we will need to bring our A game.”
Game stats
Kills: NM – Madison McKay 3, Alyssa Scheihing 1, Breanna Fogle 1, Layla Hargis 2. TC – Macy Schmidt 2, Sadie McKain 1, Lauren Molyneux 1.
Serving/Aces: NM – Hargis 19-20 5, Scheihing 4, Jalayna Shipley 9-10 2, McKay 8-8 3, Caitlyn Sanders 7-7 1, Zoe Deucore 6-7 1, Colby Sampson 1-2. Team: 66-71 16. TC – Grace Randall 7-10 1, Molyneux 5-5, McKain 4-5, Schmidt 4-5, Alyssa Conrad 4-5 1, Chloe Zittergruen 3-4, Peyton Icenbice 3-4, Reagan Schroder 1-1.
Blocks: NM – Hargis 1. TC – None.
Digs: NM – Scheihing 15, Deucore 11, Shipley 7, Hargis 4, McKay 3, Sanders 2, Sampson 1. TC – Schmidt 9, Icenbice 5, Zittergruen 5, Randall 2, Conrad 1, McKain 1, Kylee Kinzenbach 1, Molyneux 1.
Assists: NM – Deucore 4, Sanders 2, Sampson 1. TC – Zittergruen 2, Conrad 1, Kinzenbach 1, Randall 1.