April 26, 2024

Ranked Rams down Cardinals

By Jocelyn Sheets

Jousting at the net for control of the volleyball are Newton High’s Morgan Allen and Southeast Polk’s Jacey Huinker (right). Allen was able to get the tip past Huinker for a point in the third set of Tuesday’s home match against the ranked SEP Rams. Also up at the net is Newton’s Megan Pressgrove (11). Southeast Polk defeated the Cardinals, 25-11, 25-15, 25-11. (Jocelyn Sheets)

Not much went right for Newton High’s Cardinals at home Tuesday. Newton faced the seventh-ranked Class 5A Southeast Polk volleyball team, and the Rams claimed a straight set win over the Cardinals.

Southeast Polk defeated Newton, 25-11, 25-15, 25-11. The Rams made a sweep of matches, winning the junior varsity contest, 25-23, 25-14, and the freshman match, 25-23, 11-25, 16-14.

“The girls were a totally different team tonight.  We need to find some consistency and fight when we are playing no matter who the team is,” said Laura Rowen, NHS head coach, of the varsity match. “We really struggled tonight with defense and blocking which we have been working quite a bit in practices.”

Newton dropped to 2-10 for the season. The Cardinals travel to Des Moines Christian Thursday for a tournament. They are back home Tuesday in Little Hawkeye Conference play against Dallas Center-Grimes.

“Tonight, we didn’t want it enough and kind of gave up,” said Sydney Hemann, the lone senior on the NHS squad. “It didn’t come together like practices did.”

Southeast Polk’s Sam Sixta opened the match by serving five straight points for the Rams. The Cardinals never recovered, staying within five points until they gave up another four-point serving stint to the Rams in the first set.

On a tip by Taylor Shipley, the Cardinals made it 9-5 in the second set and had the serve. Newton failed to hold its serving opportunities most of the match. The Cardinals hung in against the Rams, but could not chip away at the lead.

Shipley was serving when Kaytlin Ahn won the joust at the net with a Southeast Polk player and got a point on the tip. Newton could only muster one point at a time — either from the service line or via a sideout — except once in the match.

Fran Lucas, Newton’s libero, came up with a dig that went back over the net to score a point to make it 19-13 in the second set. The Rams won 25-15.

“We need to want to play together and have fun while doing it,” Hemann said of what it was going to take to turn the young Cardinal team around. “We have to play our hearts out together.”

After falling behind 6-3 in the third set, the Cardinals battled the Rams point-for-point on sideouts. They trailed 11-9, when Sixta served up seven consecutive points for the Rams, and the Cardinals had no answer.

“As a young team we are looking for a leader attitude — an attitude where you want the ball, you want to be the playmaker, and ‘I want to put the ball away attitude,’” Rowen said. “We do not have that, and need each and every girl to dig deep and find it.”

Newton had eight service points on the night. Ahn and Shipley each served up three points while Megan Pressgrove and Bailey Davis each had one service point. Ahn had a service ace.

Pressgrove was credited with five set assists, plus she delivered four kills at the net. Ahn had four kills. Morgan Allen, Emily Fitzgerald and Hemann had one kill apiece.

Lucas came up eight digs for Newton. Allen and Pressgrove each had two digs.

In junior varsity action, Courtney Jacobsen led the net attack for Newton with four kills followed by Alyssa Bartels and Fitzgerald with two kills each, Shipley, Adrienne Bergman and Davis with one kill each. Elise Axtel had seven digs. Shipley made four set assists and Stephanie Hoboheinrich had three assists. Jacobsen, Shipley and Fitzgerald each had one service ace.

“The girls led both games, but due to a breakdown in serve reception in the first game and missed serves towards the end of the second game, we came up short,” said Mallory Sturtz, NHS assistant coach.

“Although, the outcome was not as we hoped, the girls played well and improved as a team. I feel that we are moving in the right direction and getting better with each match. We still need to work on finishing games when we have teams beat rather than letting them back in.”

The Newton junior varsity plays in a tournament Saturday at Des Moines East.

Jennifer Mouchka, NHS assistant coach, said the Cardinal freshmen struggled with their serves on offense and serve receive in the first and third set against Southeast Polk.

“In the second set, the girls came out to play and did a great job all around.  We were able to rotate most of our subs in,” Mouchka said.

Contact Sports Editor Jocelyn Sheets at (641) 792-3121 Ext. 6535 or jsheets@newtondailynews.com.