Cardinals win one out of four at DMC tourney

URBANDALE — Snapping a five-match losing skid, Newton High’s Cardinals opened play at Thursday’s Des Moines Christian Invitational volleyball tournament with a convincing win over Van Meter.

The Cardinals downed Van Meter, 21-7, 21-19 then lost the next three matches — two were close but “the Cardinals could not close the deal,” said Laura Rowen, NHS head coach.

“After beating Van Meter, the girls struggled to maintain their intensity in the next two matches,” Rowen said. “We need to work on finding that playmaker and on consistency on the court. These girls have incredible talent that they need to show off. We’re woking on finding some excitement and pride within the game.”

Newton dropped a 21-14, 21-9 decision to host Des Moines Christian. The Cardinals came up short against Mount Ayr, 21-19, 22-20, then took Grinnell to three sets. Grinnell beat Newton 14-21, 22-20, 15-13.

In the victory over Van Meter, Megan Pressgrove delivered seven kills at the net and was credited with eight set assists. She also had three ace serves and four digs. Ryanne Rausch served up three aces, made three digs and had two kills.

Morgan Allen downed four kills and had one block assist at the net. Sydney Hemann had a block assist and one kill. Kaytlin Ahn racked up four kills, plus had one ace serve and one dig. Taylor Shipley had six set assists. Shipley and Allison Ergenbright each had a kill.

Bailey Davis had a service ace. Fran Lucas was credited with three digs and Ergenbright had one dig.

Pressgrove again led the net attack for the Cardinals in the Des Moines Christain match with six kills. Allen, Ergenbright and Hemann each had two kills. Pressgrove had five set assista and Shipley had four assists. Rausch and Pressgrove each had a service ace. Pressgrove had three digs while Lucas and Allen each had one dig.

Shipley was 8-for-8 serving with three aces against Mount Ayr. Ahn and Pressgrove each had two ace serves in the match. Pressgrove downed six kills while Ahn and Allen each delivered three kills, Hemann and Shipley each had two kills and Ergenbright and Rausch had a kill apiece.

Ahn recorded two block assists at the net in the Mount Ayr match. Allen and Ergenbright had a block assist apiece. Pressgrove made eight set assists followed by six from Shipley and two from Hemann.

Defensively, Pressgrove came up with eight digs and Ahn had six digs. Shipley and Rausch each had three digs, Lucas had two digs and Ergenbright had one dig.

In the Grinnell match, the Cardinals went often to Pressgrove at the net and the sophomore delivered 14 kills and had two block assists. Hemann put up 13 set assists, Pressgrove had nine assists and Ahn had two set assists.

Ahn ended up with four kills followed by Allen with three kills, Shipley with two and Hemann with one kill. Allen and Ergenbright had one assist block each.

Hemann served up six aces, going 12-for-13 at the service line. Pressgove had two ace serves and Rausch had one ace. Pressgrove was credited with 14 digs, Hemann had five digs and Rausch and Shipley each had one dig.

Newton (3-13) takes a 0-1 conference mark into Tuesday’s home match against Dallas Center-Grimes, which is 1-1 in Little Hawkeye Conference play.

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