North Mahaska split volleyball matches this week with Keota on Oct. 4 and Montezuma on Oct. 5. The Warhawks topped Keota 3-0, then fell to Montezuma 3-1.
Against Keota, NM won 25-11, 25-13 and 25-13. North Mahaska picked up 28 kills to 11 for Keota. The Warhawks added eight service aces.
North Mahaska collected 10 kills and six blocks from Layla Hargis and five kills from Alyssa Scheihing. Kaitlyn VanDonselaar doled out 13 assists and Morgan Hudson had eight. Zoe Deucore added to her career dig total with 18. Regan Grewe had eight and Carlie Scholtus five. Scholtus also led the team in aces with three on 12-of-12 serving. Deucore and VanDonselaar each had two aces.
Against Montezuma, the Warhawks were celebrating senior night and hoping to knock off the South Iowa Cedar League co-leader. Despite the loss, coach Erica Groom was beaming.
“To say I’m proud of these girls is a complete understatement,” said Groom. “They played their hearts out and made Montezuma work for it tonight. Thank you to Colby Sampson for stepping up and playing tough tonight. Juniors Caitlyn Sanders and Jalayna Renee and freshman Regan Grewe all played their heart out as well.
“All 10 girls showed mental toughness tonight by coming back from losing the first two sets and then being down a lot in the third to come back and win it. We knew it was going to be tough, but we definitely contended. Tonight, we went 3-1 and two of the games we lost were 25-27.”
VanDonselaar and Hudson each made nine assists to help Hargis and Grewe, who finished with nine and six kills respectively. The Warhawks had 90 digs in the match including 35 by Deucore, 15 by Scholtus, Jalayna Shipley had 14, Grewe nine and VanDonselaar with seven.
Hudson had half of North Mahaska’s service aces with four while hitting a perfect 16-of-16 attempts.
North Mahaska will begin South Iowa Cedar League tourney play Oct. 11 in Sigourney.