March 28, 2024

Tigerhawk netters upend Montezuma in five-set thriller

COLFAX — The Colfax-Mingo volleyball team was in a familiar position against Montezuma on Tuesday night.

Back on Sept. 15, the Tigerhawks pulled out a five-set conference win against the Bravettes. A little more than a month later, Colfax-Mingo was once again in a fifth and final set against its South Iowa Cedar League rivals.

The Tigerhawks didn’t take the same route to the fifth set, but the end result was the same. Junior Ries Wilson had 23 kills and senior Amy Russell collected a double-double as Colfax-Mingo ended Montezuma’s 14-match win streak with a 18-25, 25-18, 25-13, 24-26, 15-10 win over the Bravettes.

Montezuma came into the match with plenty of momentum after winning the conference tournament last week, but it’s the Tigerhawks who are moving on to the quarterfinals of the Class 2A Region 4 tournament.

“It feels amazing. I can’t explain it,” Wilson said. “We actually wanted them to come in with a lot of confidence. We wanted them to think they had us beat already before the match began.”

Wilson battled through a sore ankle she injured during an SICL match with Lynnville-Sully earlier this season. She was in obvious pain midway through the match, but didn’t miss any time and led the Tigerhawks to a first-round playoff win for the second straight season.

Wilson came into the match averaging a conference-best 5.12 kills per set. She now has 397 kills on the season. Her classmate, junior Megan Earles, dished out 33 assists and now has 555 on the year.

“It feels amazing, especially against the team that just won the conference championship,” Earles said of the win. “We knew they would really want to beat us after we beat them earlier this year. We still stayed on it though and worked hard to not let that happen.”

Colfax-Mingo (18-10) plays No. 9 Woodward-Granger in the 2A Region 4 quarterfinals at 7 p.m. Monday. The Hawks swept C-M in their home tourney this past weekend.

“We didn’t play well against them,” C-M coach Michelle Grant said. “They remind me a lot of Belle Plaine. They have one really good hitter, and they go to her all the time. They tried to hide her a lot, but the ball always went to her.

“We just need to do a lot of things we did to prepare for Belle Plaine. We need to concentrate on the big girl and get the blocks up.”

Montezuma (27-9) got off to a fast start in the opening set. With the score tied at 4-all, the Bravettes rolled off eight straight to take a lead they wouldn’t give up.

Wilson had trouble hitting through Montezuma blockers in the first set but got it going the remainder of the match. She had eight kills in the second set, helping the Tigerhawks even the match at 1-all.

“I knew they had a strong blocker so I tried to go cross-court,” Wilson said. “I was able to see where the holes were at and where the tips were open tonight. That helped me adjust to the blockers they were throwing at me. I had to switch up the momentum a little bit to throw them off.”

Wilson tallied five more kills in the third set, but it was the serving of junior Rhiannon Haley that kept the momentum with the home team. Clinging to an 11-8 lead, Haley had two aces during a 10-point service run that pushed Colfax-Mingo to a third-set win.

“I think we play better from behind, for whatever reason,” Grant said. “We gain confidence as we go.”

There were eight ties in the fourth set. Montezuma pulled ahead 20-14, but Colfax-Mingo rallied to tie it at 20-all. It was tied again at 21 and 24 before the Bravettes scored the final two points to force a fifth set.

“Knowing us, I kind of expected it to go five,” Earles said. “No one ever really wants it to go five, but it always ends up that way. I had a feeling tonight was going to be another one.”

Volleyball, a lot of times, is a game of momentum. In matches that go the distance, starting off strong and grabbing early momentum is key to pulling out a win. Colfax-Mingo did just that, grabbing a 6-3 lead before eventually going up 10-5.

Montezuma scored two straight points to get back within three, but a Russell kill and back-to-back errors by the Bravettes sent the home crowd into frenzy.

“It was a tough match the first time. They had momentum on their side from winning the conference tournament, too,” Grant said. “We are so much better this year than last year, but we also had a much tougher opponent in the playoffs. This win was a big deal for the program.”

Wilson and Russell had 33 of the Tigerhawks’ 36 kills, but Grant pointed out others who played a big part in the win. She thought Haley’s service run in Game 3 was huge, and she liked what she saw defensively from libero Chelsea Russell in the final two sets.

Haley was 18-of-20 in serves with four aces, and she also had eight digs. Chelsea Russell finished with 12 digs.

“We have talked a lot since Thursday about how it doesn’t matter who does what,” Grant said. “If Ries gets a kill, we all get a kill. It doesn’t matter. The win at the end is what matters. We just wanted to go get the ‘W.’”

The Montezuma fans were upset throughout the match about several calls. Most of them revolved around 23 double-touch violations that were called in the match.

While Grant agreed that the calls seemed more excessive than normal, she agreed with the double-touch calls that went against both teams.

“They were supposed to emphasize that during the season, but they didn’t really call it that much this year,” Grant said. “It can be frustrating, especially since it was called more tonight.

“They were double touches. They didn’t get the call wrong, but those just aren’t called very much during the year. I will say that a lot of times when it was called, they mis-hit the ball or hit it into the net so we would have gotten the point anyway.”

Amy Russell tallied 10 kills and 15 digs, while Earles had eight digs and was 24-for-24 in serves. Wilson and senior Dakota Hostetter each had six kills.

Wilson was 15-for-15 in serves with two aces. Amy Russell and Hostetter both went 17-of-18 in serves, while Chelsea Russell was 10-of-10. In the match, Colfax-Mingo was 101-of-105 in serves with seven aces.