Tigerhawks capture SICL win over Hawks

SULLY — Colfax-Mingo and Lynnville-Sully played each other in the final match of Saturday’s Twin Cedar Invitational in Bussey. The Hawks defeated the Tigerhawks in two sets.

On Monday, the two teams faced off again on the volleyball court in South Iowa Cedar League conference play at Lynnville-Sully High School. The roles were reversed.

The Hawks weren’t able to establish a home-court advantage in their SICL opener while the Tigerhawks claimed the final two sets to win 25-22, 19-25, 25-17, 25-13.

“I didn’t do a good job of getting our girls ready tonight,” Lynnville-Sully head coach Jayme Deal said. “We didn’t play together. There was no teamwork, no communication and we just couldn’t get there.”

Colfax-Mingo head coach Michelle Grant said her team wasn’t ready to play Lynnville-Sully on Saturday.

“That loss bothered us. We didn’t play well, and we knew we could play better as a team,” Grant said after Monday’s win. “We were ready to play tonight, and we came in with a bit of a chip on our shoulder.”

The match featured two of the top 10 hitters in the SICL in Lynnville-Sully senior Brenna Lanser and Colfax-Mingo junior Ries Wilson. Each got their hits in during the four-set match, but other players had strong performances for both teams.

Chelsea Russell, Rhiannon Haley, Shaylee Shedenhelm and Amy Russell had quality serving for the Tigerhawks. Chelsea Russell was 21-of-21 with 13 points and one serving ace. Haley and Shedenhelm each served for 10 points in the match. Amy Russell went 16-of-17 at the serving line.

Lynnville-Sully built an 11-8 lead in the opening set on three-point serving runs by Lanser and Jelissa Rozendaal. The Hawks were up 13-10 when Chelsea Russell strung together four consecutive points for Colfax-Mingo.

It was back-and-forth from there. It was tied at 22-all when Colfax-Mingo scored a point defensively, and Wilson served up the final two points.

Strong serving came from Carson Fisk for the Hawks, going 25-of-26 in the match. Fisk opened the second set with a nine-point run, including two of her five aces on the night. She finished with 13 points.

Colfax-Mingo bounced back into the set, but Lynnville-Sully maintained its lead, 13-8. On a kill by Makenzy Rozendaal, the Hawks were in charge of a 21-11 lead. The Tigerhawks fended off the final four points until Makenzy Rozendaal downed a kill and McKinley Conover served the set point, 25-19.

“She (Fisk) has a tough serve and we made mistakes during that serving run,” Grant said. “As a team, we talk a lot about eliminating mistakes. We didn’t communicate with each other in that set, but we came back strong to get the win.”

Colfax-Mingo got the upper hand in the third set and kept it. Lynnville-Sully did briefly gain the lead on a three-point run at the service line by McKinley Conover. Two of the points came on a block by Olivia Ritter and a kill by Lanser.

Back came the Tigerhawks with Wilson serving up five points. Colfax-Mingo fans held their breath three rotations later when Wilson delivered a kill then rolled her ankle when she landed. Wilson left the court with Colfax-Mingo up 18-14.

Wilson returned to the court and helped the Tigerhawks win the third set, 25-18. Colfax-Mingo rolled to a 10-3 lead in the fourth set. Lynnville-Sully wasn’t able to respond and dropped the fourth and deciding set, 25-13.

“We’ll use this as a learning experience, and come out on Thursday and do better,” Deal said of the Hawks.

Wilson delivered 25 kills on 42 attack attempts for Colfax-Mingo. She also had eight digs, seven service points and two ace serves. Amy Russell had seven kills and eight digs. Megan Earles served for three points and had two kills. Aranda Woods downed four kills.

“Megan played really well with 32 set assists. I thought Amy Russell passed the ball extremely well tonight,” Grant said.

Makenzy Rozendaal led the Hawk net attack with 10 kills. Lanser had eight kills and let the Hawks with 27 digs. Fisk had 14 digs and 25 set assists. Conover also had 14 digs.

Jelissa Rozendall served up six points, had one ace serve, four kills and seven digs. Camryn Russell had five kills and 10 digs.

Colfax-Mingo is 4-2 overall and 2-0 in SICL play. The Tigerhawks host Montezuma at 5:30 p.m. Thursday in conference action.

Lynnville-Sully is 4-2 overall and 0-1 in conference action. The Hawks are at home in a 5:30 p.m. match Thursday against BGM in SICL play.

Lynnville-Sully won two junior varsity matches against Colfax-Mingo Monday — 21-19, 21-15 and 25-17, 25-22.

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