Tigerhawks settle for fourth in SICL Gold Quad

MARENGO — In the span of eight days, the Colfax-Mingo volleyball team lost two leads to South Iowa Cedar League rival Belle Plaine.

The first loss came during an SICL road match last week. The Tigerhawks led 2-1 in that match before losing in five games.

The most recent defeat against the Plainsmen came Thursday night during the SICL Gold Quadrangular at Iowa Valley High School.

Colfax-Mingo won the opener of a best-of-three but couldn’t hold its lead during a three-set loss. Belle Plaine rallied behind the heavy hitting of Kenzie Mantz and advanced to the championship match with an 18-25, 25-16, 17-15 win.

The Tigerhawks went on to place fourth on the night after a two-set loss to Class 1A No. 8 and host Iowa Valley.

Montezuma won its firs conference volleyball title with a four-set win over Belle Plaine after beating Iowa Valley in three sets in the opening match of the night.

“Both times we played Belle Plaine, we were right there and they could have gone either way,” Colfax-Mingo coach Michelle Grant said. “Our momentum needs to stay and swing, but it doesn’t.”

Colfax-Mingo (15-8) trailed Belle Plaine 8-2 in the opening set before rallying. Senior Dakota Hostetter, who ran in the SICL cross country meet earlier in the night, helped bring the Tigerhawks to within 13-11 with a block and a kill on back-to-back points.

Senior Amy Russell then recorded two straight aces after a kill by junior Ries Wilson. The second ace gave the Tigerhawks a lead, and Colfax-Mingo never trailed again.

Unfortunately, the Tigerhawks failed to keep the momentum. Belle Plaine, behind Mantz, jumped out to a 10-1 lead in the second set. Colfax-Mingo never got closer than eight the rest of the way.

The third and final set could have gone either way. Colfax-Mingo held a 5-0 lead before Belle Plaine (16-10) slowly trimmed it down.

Back-to-back aces by Mantz got the Plainsmen to within 7-6. The set had six ties the rest of the way before Belle Plaine closed out the win with two straight points. Mantz finished it off with a hard blast.

“We rotated our lineup a little bit in the third set. I looked smart there for a bit, but then we lost the lead,” Grant said. “It’s kind of been our thing. We lose leads but we also come back from being down quite a few points.”

Wilson finished with 13 kills and nine digs in the loss, while junior setter Megan Earles added 20 assists and was 11-for-11 in serves. Russell collected six kills, a team-high 14 digs and was 13-of-15 in serving with two aces.

The Tigerhawks held their own against state-ranked Iowa Valley in the opening set of the consolation match.

Colfax-Mingo led 14-10 following a kill by Russell. Iowa Valley rallied to even the set at 17-all, but Wilson collected three kills in four points to give her team a 20-18 lead.

A Russell kill a few points later made it 21-20, but Iowa Valley once again rallied to tie it at 22- and 23-all. The Tigers scored the final two points of the set to go up 1-0 in the match.

Colfax-Mingo grabbed an early lead in the second set, but Iowa Valley outscored the Tigerhawks 21-7 to record the sweep after being down 7-4 early on.

“It’s a bummer. We fell apart in that last set, but it had nothing to do with actual volleyball,” said Grant, who graduated from Iowa Valley. “We got down a few points, and we allowed them to pull us a part. I saw it happen, and I was not happy with it.

“I get that there wasn’t a lot of energy. It was a consolation match. But I was disappointed in our togetherness. It was a mental thing for us in that last match.”

Wilson had 12 kills and seven digs in the loss to the Tigers (19-14).

Earles tallied 12 assists and four digs, Russell added three kills and five digs and Hostetter had a pair of kills and a pair of digs.

The Tigerhawks play in the Woodward-Granger tournament Saturday, but Colfax-Mingo turns it attention to Montezuma (27-8) and their playoff meeting Tuesday night.

The positive thing about Thursday was that those two teams didn’t meet, according to Grant.

“The only thing we need to be thinking about now is Montezuma,” Grant said. “I wanted to play them in the championship match, but I didn’t want to play them coming into the night. We have to play them Tuesday in the playoffs and beating a team three times in one season is tough.”

The Braves have won 14 straight matches, but Colfax-Mingo defeated them in five sets back on Sept. 15 in Colfax.

The Tigerhawks once again have the advantage of playing on their homecourt. The Class 2A regional opener begins at 7 p.m. Tuesday.