Tigerhawks come to life, knock off Ogden

Colfax-Mingo’s Brittany Harmison gets ready for an Ogden serve Thursday. Harmison had nine aces, 15 assists and six kills as the Tigerhawks won, 3-1. Craig Murphy/Daily News

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COLFAX — Prior to hosting Thursday’s Heart of Iowa Conference tilt with Ogden, the Colfax-Mingo volleyball team hadn’t played in a week. In the first game the Tigerhawks looked like, well, a team that hadn’t played in a week. “I don’t have an explanation,” C-M coach Brian Warrick said when asked to explain the number of opening-game errors. Ogden (1-5) capitalized and easily won Game 1, 25-15. The Tigerhawks — and a rowdy student section — came to life in the second game, and C-M (2-1) went on to post a 3-1 win. C-M won 15-25, 25-12, 25-12 and 25-18. Errors consistently doomed C-M in the opening game, with Warrick estimating his team gave Ogden 15 points in serving, hitting or passing errors. The Tigerhawks hit the ball into the net regularly, and after the Bulldogs went on an early 6-0 run to go up 6-2, they never trailed again. “Let’s forget the first game,” Warrick joked afterwards. “We came out tight, like we were nervous in front of the home crowd. I changed the lineup and barked at them a bit.” That seemed to work as roles were reversed starting in Game 2. C-M sprinted to a 7-1 lead and pushed the lead to 12-2 before Ogden started to creep back. Any hopes for the Bulldogs were put out when they pulled within 14-9. C-M junior Meranda McKinney served up three aces in a 9-0 run as the Tigerhawks rolled to the 25-12 win. “We hustled a lot,” McKinney said of the difference in the second game. “We all tried our hardest. Most of the time I don’t even serve. I was kind of nervous. I think we all just wanted to win.” Warrick admitted he was “real surprised” by errors in the first game, and said serving jumpstarted the team in game 2. “The key was when Meranda started serving,” Warrick said. “She’s mainly a defensive specialist, in the back row. This was her first varsity game serving. She certainly stepped up.” The Tigerhawks tallied 22 aces on the night, led by Brittany Harmison with nine and McKinney with six. “That’s incredible,” Warrick said of Harmison’s total. “Brittany has been a good, hard, consistent server. The girls did a nice job. When you have 22 aces on the night, that helps a lot.” Game 3 was all C-M. The Tigerhawks never trailed, and jumped to a quick 9-1 lead. After Ogden pulled within five at 14-9, C-M duplicated the previous game by ending on a 11-3 run. Game 4 started out much the same, but the Bulldogs came back to tie the game at 10. “We let them back in,” Warrick said. “We started relaxing. We were back on our heels on defense, instead of playing aggressively.” C-M used a 7-1 run to open up a gap again, on the way to the 25-18 win. After an unusually light schedule to start the season, the Tigerhawks now start getting more matches. C-M has tournaments three of the next four weekends, including Saturday at Guthrie Center. “We start playing now,” Warrick said.

At Colfax Colfax-Mingo def. Ogden 15-25, 25-12, 25-12, 25-18 C-M individual stats KILLS: Josie Redman 6, Brittany Harmison 6, Vannessa Ginther 3, Afton Vander Schel 3, Meg Alexander 2, Sam Hawbaker 2, Breanna Trainor 2. ACES: Harmison 9, Meranda McKinney 6, Alexander 3, Hawbaker 3. DIGS: Katy Davidson 9, McKinney 7, Hawbaker 1. ASSISTS: Harmison 15, Brooke Berkey 10.