Cardinals net a split in triangular

ALLEMAN — Leaving the sting of Tuesday’s home loss behind, Newton High’s Cardinals claimed a 25-15, 25-15 win over South Tama Thursday in triangular action hosted by North Polk.

The Cardinals opened their run at the triangular meet with the victory over the Trojans. They came up short against North Polk’s Comets, losing 25-16, 26-24.

Newton’s split of matches Thursday moved its overall record to 5-8 on the season. The Cardinals take a 0-1 Little Hawkeye Conference mark into Tuesday’s conference match at Oskaloosa.

“We had a really good match against South Tama,” Cardinal assistant coach Taylor Peska said. “We worked really well as a team. We coaches were impressed with the girls’ communication on the court.”

Newton served well in both matches, going 32-of-35 against South Tama and 35-of-37 against North Polk.

Megan Pressgrove served up three aces in the South Tama match. Emily Fitzgerald, Kaytlin Ahn and Taylor Shipley each had one ace serve.

Ahn led the net attack for the Cardinals against the Trojans with five kills, one solo block and two assisted blocks. Fitzgerald downed three kills and made two assisted blocks. Pressgrove and Shipley each had three kills.

Morgan Allen put down one kill. Allen and Pressgrove each made an assisted block while Allison Ergenbright had two block assists. Pressgrove put up five set assists and Shipley had three set assists.

Fran Lucas was credited with 11 digs for the Cardinals. Fitzgerald and Ahn had five digs each and Audrey Lucas had four digs.

“We had a disappointing first set with North Polk,” Peska said. “We came out scared and weren’t playing like ourselves. However, the second set we came out strong, were aggressive and excited again. We had a few long points, and great, exciting rallies. The girls were fun and exciting to watch.”

Fran Lucas was 9-of-9 serving and came up with 12 digs against the Comets. Ahn had eight digs, but also proved tough at the net with six kills and two assisted blocks. Audrey Lucas had seven digs.

Pressgrove had three kills and a solo block and assisted block. Shipley had one kill. Shipley put up six set assists and Pressgrove had one set assist. Allen had one assisted block.

The Cardinal junior varsity went three sets in both matches and lost. No official scores were available. The junior varsity squad plays in Saturday’s Marshalltown junior varsity tournament. Matches begin at 9 a.m.

Newton’s freshmen lost 21-9, 21-9 to North Polk. Since South Tama did not have a freshman team, the Newton and North Polk played extra time to allow all the girls more experience, NHS freshman coach Michaela Wood said.

“There were a lot of positives. Our serving was better compared to past matches. We need to work on our passing to set up a good attack, and not just hand over points to the other team,” Wood said.

The NHS freshmen begin play at 8:30 a.m. Saturday in the Indianola freshman tournament.

Contact Jocelyn Sheets at
641-792-3121 ext. 6535
or jsheets@newtondailynews.com