We’ve eased into the fall sports run for area high school teams. A few volleyball matches, a swim meet and a cross country meet were on the coverage list this week for the Newton Daily News sports staff.
Friday night puts us square in fall sports coverage mode with a full slate of high school football games under the lights.
Newton High’s Cardinal volleyball team notched back-to-back wins on its home court Tuesday before losing three in a row — two to ranked teams in Class 5A and Class 4A. The Cardinals showed marked improvement over last year’s opening volley of matches in which they were 0-5 in the Newton Early Bird Invitational.
A year ago, the Newton volleyball team had one senior and relied on inexperienced underclassmen to challenge teams on the court. This year, the Cardinals have six seniors on the roster to lead the way. They’ve recorded two victories, putting them on a good foundation to push up their match win total beyond their 7-23 mark of 2014.
Newton’s volleyball team is still young with juniors and sophomores providing quality time on the court. The Cardinals pushed 4A ranked Adel-DeSoto-Minburn to a deciding third set Tuesday, which was to go only to 15 points. A team has to win by two points and the teams battled until the Tigers snatched a 21-19 win in the third set.
The Cardinals had their chances to beat ADM after rallying for a second-set win. It came down to little things. They’ll learn to manage those little things and communicate consistently on the court as the season progresses.
NCMP’s swim team is tough to beat, especially at home. The Aquagirls opened the 2015 season Tuesday at the Newton YMCA and decked visiting Linn-Mar. NCMP has two sets of school records — one in meters when it swims at home and one in yards when it is one the road and in state competition. Several Aquagirls’ records were lowered on the meters board.
NCMP only had two home swim dates in 2014. This season, the Aquagirls give fans three more opportunities to come out and cheer them on in their home waters at the YMCA. They host Grinnell and Indianola Thursday starting at 5:30 p.m. They have two home meets in October.
Newton’s cross country teams along with runners from Prairie City-Monroe and Collins-Maxwell/Baxter competed in Thursday’s Gilbert Invitational on the Iowa State University cross country course in Ames.
PCM volleyball got things started Tuesday. The Mustangs go into Saturday’s Bondurant-Farrar tournament gunning for their first win of the season.
Newton’s Cardinal football team opens this season on the road Friday at Knoxville. The Cardinal freshman kick things off at 4:45 p.m. against the Panthers at Knoxville’s Ken Locke Stadium with the varsity game kickoff slated for 7:30 p.m.
Newton’s junior varsity hosts Knoxville at 6 p.m. Monday.
The lone area football team opening the 2015 season at home is Colfax-Mingo. The Tigerhawks host Pleasantville.
Lynnville-Sully is at Van Buren and PCM is at Pella Christian. CMB takes on West Marshall but the game has been moved to Gilbert because West Marshall’s new track/football stadium work is not completed. All four games kick off at 7 p.m.
Next week, we get into the thick of things and going full bore.
Contact Jocelyn Sheets at
641-792-3121 ext. 6535
or jsheets@newtondailynews.com