March 19, 2024

Warriors toss Cardinals on Senior Night

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Sydney Hemann walked across the volleyball court with her parents, Tim and Kari Hemann, just before Newton High’s final regular-season match. Hemann is the lone senior on the 2014 Cardinal team.

It was a bittersweet night for Hemann as the Cardinals bowed to visiting Norwalk’s Warriors 25-10, 25-19, 25-10 on Senior Night. Newton finished 0-6 in Little Hawkeye Conference play, ending the regular season at 7-28.

“We had more effort than we have had for awhile during a match tonight,” said Laura Rowen, “From here on out its tournament time and each day could be our last. We have a season under our belt so the ‘we are young’ excuse is no longer. We need to play to win or that’s it, done.”

In Tuesday’s first set, Norwalk jumped out to a 9-2 lead and Newton didn’t have a response. Facing another blowout set down 3-0, the Cardinals battled back on a couple of net plays by Morgan Allen. Hemann was at the service line with her team down 5-3 and she served up three points.

The teams went back-and-forth. Taylor Shipley served two points for Newton — the second on a hit by Ryanne Rausch, but the Cardinals were down 13-12. Megan Pressgrove had a tip for a point and a block for another one to help pull the Cardinals to within three points, 21-18. They didn’t get any closer in the second set.

Pressgrove went out with a back problem at the end of the second set and did not get back on the court for Newton.

The third set was another back-and-forth affair. Norwalk had leads of one or two points. Newton could not keep the serve to string points together. But the Warriors went on a seven-point run to push their lead to 17-7. The Warriors’ next server had five straight points to solidify a big advantage for the win.

In Hemann’s final match on the NHS court, she served up six points and had one ace. She also had seven set assists, plus two kills and one assisted block at the net. Hemann had two digs.

Rausch led the net attack for Newton with seven kills. Courtney Jacobsen delivered three kills while Allen and Pressgrove each had two kills. Allison Ergenbright had one kill. Allen put up two solo blocks and two assisted blocks. Pressgrove had an assisted block.

Rausch had two points on two ace serves. Allen and Shipley each served for two points and Pressgrove had one service point. Pressgrove had four set assists and Shipley made three set assists.

Fran Lucas came up with 11 digs and Shipley made three digs. Rausch and Jacobsen had two digs apiece.

The Cardinals get back to work in practice for their opening-round match of the Class 4A Region 4 tournament Monday. Newton travels to Oskaloosa (12-23) for a 7 p.m. match.

Newton’s junior varsity ended its season with a 29-27, 25-15 loss to Norwalk Tuesday. Adrienne Bergman put down four kills and had two digs for the Cardinals. Lucy Lilienthal had two kills while Shipley, Natalie Camp and Bailey Davis each had one kill.

“Although we didn’t come out on top, the girls played hard and showed great effort,” said Mallory Sturtz, NHS junior varsity coach. “It was great to finally see many of the fundamentals we had been working on in practice and trying to improve on from game to game show in our play tonight.”

Stephanie Hoebelheinrich was credited with eight set assists. Davis had a block at the net. Elise Axtel made seven digs while Shipley had four digs, Savannah Reicks had two digs and Audrey Lucas had one dig. Camp, Shipley, Davis and Hoebelheinrich each had one ace serve.

Norwalk beat the Newton freshmen, 25-15, 19-25, 15-11, in their final match of the season,

“The girls really played well, much better than how they played Saturday,” said Jennifer Mouchka, Newton freshman coach. “Even though we didn’t finish the night winning, the girls ended the season playing hard and playing together as a team, something we stressed all season.”

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