Hawks rack up firsts with win over Keota
By CRAIG MURPHY NDN Sports Writer
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| Making her first start of the year, Lynnville-Sully senior Amanda Kiehl stuffs a Keota kill attempt in Sully Wednesday night. The Hawks held on for their first home win, 3-2.
Craig Murphy/Daily News |
SULLY — There were plenty of firsts associated with Lynnville-Sully’s nailbiting five-game win over Keota Wednesday.
The South Iowa Cedar League match marked the first time this year L-S has gone to five games and marked the first time this year senior Amanda Kiehl has played.
But other firsts stood out even more: the first conference win of the year, and the first win at home.
“That was fun,” first-year L-S coach Al Hodgeman said. “It was nice.”
Especially the first game. Behind some strong serves by Tonya De Cook, the Hawks (2-11) took an early 6-1 lead. Later, behind the serving of Caitlin Cross, L-S went on a 10-0 run on the way to a convincing 25-15 win.
“I leaned over to (assistant coach Sabrina Edsen) during that first game and said, ‘They’re not this bad of a team,’” Hodgeman said of the Eagles. “Their record shows they’re better than that. They were making a lot of errors. It surprised me they came out that way. But for us that was a positive. It gave our kids some confidence.”
Perhaps just a tad too much.
“We thought we had it in the bag,” said Josie Morris, who had 19 assists, 14 digs, four aces and three kills for L-S. “We were overconfident for that second game.”
Keota took full advantage, doing a flip-flop from the opening game on the way to an easy 25-11 win.
“Sometimes when you’re on the road it takes a while to get going,” Hodgeman said. “Throughout the season, there have been points when we’ve won the first game, then lost the last three.”
The Hawks weren’t about to allow that to happen again.
Whereas the first two games bordered on blowouts, the third game was a hard-fought battle.
L-S pulled ahead 14-11, but Keota came back with a 6-0 run to go up 17-14. The Hawks came back to tie the score at 18. The game was tied four more times before the Eagles went up 24-23. L-S came back, however, to take the 26-24 win.
“We won our first tight game,” Hodgeman said of the Game 3 victory. “The girls believe in themselves and have the right attitude. Winning the third game was big.”
Morris said the Hawks stayed positive after Game 2.
“We tried to pump each other up,” she said.
Keota pulled away down the stretch in Game 4 to force a final game.
“I was interested to see how the kids would respond in the fifth game,” Hodgeman said. “They responded well.”
That was indeed the case. Morris started the game with an ace, and the Hawks quickly built a 6-2 lead. Keota came back to tie the game at 10, but never took the lead.
With her team up 14-13, Morris knocked the ball into an empty spot in the corner of the back row, giving the Hawks the hard-earned win.
Morris said her picture-perfect placement was “not really” planned.
“I was trying to go to the setter’s spot and go where she was not,” Morris said.
Helping the Hawks throughout the night were strong serves. L-S had 21 aces on the night, with four players recording at least three each. Moreso, plenty of other serves kept the Eagle offense from being able to attack.
“We definitely had it really going on with our serving tonight,” Morris said. “We served well.”
Hodgeman said the match was big for the Hawks, who play in an Urbandale tournament Saturday starting at 8 a.m.
“This is a real confidence builder,” Hodgeman said. “I can’t teach this in practice. They have to experience a win in a game like this to know what it’s like. It’s real big.”
Morris would seem to agree.
“It’s pretty awesome,” she said. “It was definitely a fun game.”
At Sully
L-S def. Keota 25-15, 11-25, 26-24, 17-25, 15-13.
L-S individual statistics
KILLS: Tessa Engle 7, Tara Van Rees 7, Tonya De Cook 4, Josie Morris 3, Amanda Kiehl 3, Caitlin Cross 1, Brooke Van Soelen 1.
ACES: De Cook 6, Morris 4, Van Rees 4, Van Soelen 3, Cross 2, Katelyn Van Wyk 1, Kiehl 1.
DIGS: De Cook 15, Morris 14, K. Van Wyk 11, Taylor Van Wyk 11, Van Rees 3, Kiehl 3, Cross 2, Van Soelen 1.
ASSISTS: Morris 19, Cross 4.
BLOCKS: Engle 7, Kiehl 2.
