TAMA — Tuesday can’t get here quick enough for Newton High’s Cardinals. The NHS volleyball team hasn’t play at home since opening the season on Aug. 22 and have lost four straight matches on the road.
Newton returns to the friendly confines of the NHS upper gym Tuesday in Little Hawkeye Conference play against Grinnell.
The Cardinals came up short in non-conference matches Thursday against North Polk and host South Tama. They pushed North Polk, which is out of the Heart of Iowa Conference, to three sets as the Comets defeated the Cardinals, 25-7, 23-25, 15-5.
South Tama’s Trojans, who are in the WaMaC Conference, stopped Newton 25-18, 25-12.
Rachel Berkland led the net attack for the Cardinals against North Polk with three kills, one solo block and one assisted block. Madison Bleeker and Audrey Lucas each downed three kills and made a block assist at the net.
Alexis Hoffman racked up two kills and had two block assists. Kate Callaghan, who was credited with eight set assists, had one kill, one solo block and one block assist. Lucy Lilienthal had one kill and one set assist.
Carter Lee came up with 15 digs and had one kill for Newton. Callaghan had eight digs while Harlie Durr, Lucas and Berkland each had three digs. Addy Blom had one dig.
In the match against South Tama, Hoffman delivered four kills and had three block assists at the net. Berkland, Callaghan, Lilienthal and Lucas had two kills apiece. Lucas had two block assists.
Lilienthal had a solo block and Callaghan had a block assist. Callaghan made eight set assists and Lilienthal had one set assist.
Callaghan was credited with six digs and Lee had four digs. Durr had two digs while Berkland and Lucas each and one dig. At the service line, the Cardinals got two ace serves from Berkland and one ace serve apiece from Lee and Lucas.
The Newton junior varsity beat South Tama in two sets Thursday. No score or statistics were available for the junior varsity.
Newton’s varsity (2-5) takes a 0-2 LHC mark into Tuesday’s home match against Grinnell.
Newton honors the 30-year history of Cardinal volleyball Tuesday as the first Newton High School volleyball team will be recognized. In 1987, Newton began its state sanctioned high school volleyball program.
The 1987 team will be honored prior to the varsity match, which is slated for 7:15 p.m. The freshman and junior varsity matches begin at 5:30 p.m.
Contact Jocelyn Sheets at 641-792-3121 ext. 6535 or jsheets@newtondailynews.com
