Newton places second, PCM third at Cardinal ‘Early Bird’

Newton head volleyball coach Kim Florke has 11 seniors to work with this fall. But on Tuesday night in the Cardinal “Early Bird” Invitational, it was a freshman who opened the most eyes.

Kadance Ahn’s first career varsity appearance featured a double-double as she tallied a team-best 22 kills and 10 digs during the Cardinals’ four matches at Berg Middle School.

Ahn and senior Kate Callaghan led Newton to a second-place finish as the Cardinals went 3-1 on the night.

Newton was victorious in straight sets over PCM, Saydel and Des Moines Hoover and lost in two sets to Knoxville.

“I told coach that a star was born tonight,” Florke said about Ahn. “If she gains confidence, she’s just going to be outstanding. She really stepped up tonight.”

PCM placed third in the tournament, defeating Heart of Iowa Conference rival Saydel and Hoover in straight sets. The Mustangs also were swept by Newton and Knoxville.

Each match was best two of three and teams went to 21 for the first two sets and 15 if it went a third and final set.

Newton (3-1) opened the tournament with 21-5, 21-5 win over Des Moines Hoover (0-5). The win over PCM was 21-13, 21-14.

The Cardinals lost to Knoxville (5-1) in the third match. That score was 21-15, 21-19. Newton defeated Saydel (1-3) 21-9, 21-8.

“We learned what we have been seeing at practice. We have to be aggressive, serve well and pass well,” Florke said. “Against Knoxville, some of that stuff got broken down. I thought we lacked confidence against them.”

PCM (2-2) opened its tournament with a 21-16, 21-15 loss to Knoxville. The Mustangs’ first win of the year came against Saydel, and it was 21-13, 21-10. They ended the night with a 21-12, 21-10 win over Hoover.

“We played everyone tonight because we are mixing it up to see who steps up,” PCM coach Mike Vittetoe said. “It’s tough because one girl maybe blocks better and another girl hits better. I don’t know if we cleared anything up today. There are still positions up in the air. We didn’t have much separation tonight.”

In the battle between two Jasper County teams, Newton jumped out to a 6-0 lead over PCM thanks in part to a pair of aces by Callaghan and two kills by senior Jerrica McGuire.

PCM senior Celeste Wagaman’s kill made it 8-4 and her ace later kept the Mustangs within striking distance.

Wagaman led PCM with nine kills, four blocks, three digs and three aces on the night.

The first set stayed close until the Cardinals closed on an 8-2 run. During that run, McGuire had two kills and an ace. She finished with 12 kills, four blocks and seven aces in Newton’s four matches.

In the second set, Newton went up 9-2 early. Ahn had the first two kills, McGuire had two aces and senior Meg Callaghan chipped in a kill and a block.

The Mustangs didn’t go away quietly, closing the gap to 12-10 thanks to kills by sophomore Riley Johannes and junior Claire Wilson and a block by senior Kassidy Block.

That’s when Newton pulled away though. Kate Callaghan had back-to-back kills and then smashed down two more before closing out the sweep.

Florke and her coaching staff are trying to prevent slow starts by changing up practices this season.

Unfortunately, Newton fell behind 6-0 against Knoxville in the first set and never recovered.

The closest the Cardinals got the rest of the way was 20-15 but they lost one point later.

“We did better late in the match once we got our confidence back,” Florke said. “They intimidated us though, and I don’t like seeing that.”

Newton fell behind 4-1 in the second set but McGuire tied the score with back-to-back aces. Ahn had a kill and then consecutive kills to give Newton an 8-6 lead. Meg Callaghan’s blast extended the lead, but Knoxville rolled off five in a row to regain the advantage.

The Cardinals led again at 15-14, 16-15 and 17-16 but couldn’t hold the lead and lost by two.

“We got down too much in the first set. And then we got ahead in the second set and couldn’t finish,” Florke said. “It’s just little things. I think we’ll continue to get better.”

Florke said the coaching staff is still trying to figure out the best combinations on the floor. The biggest issue is confidence, according to the veteran coach.

“I think it’s confidence. We see them do it. We know they can do it,” Florke said. “This is a pressure situation. I was proud of Kadance. She didn’t let anything bother her.

“They need to know that we think we put the best team out there initially, but if you are not going to perform we have another senior who wants to come in and play. We wanted to give everybody a look at some point. I like pressure. I like that competition. It makes us better.”

Kate Callaghan had a triple-double for Newton, finishing with 47 assists, 17 kills and 12 aces and also chipped in five digs.

Meg Callaghan added eight kills, eight aces, four digs and three blocks and was 21-of-22 in serves.

Senior Tess Brunsmann finished with seven kills, four aces and four assists and was 20-for-20 in serves. Senior Kynnedei Terpstra tallied six kills, six aces and eight digs, while senior Katie McConnell had seven digs and senior Riley Davidson had five digs.

The Cardinals played at ADM on Thursday but results were unavailable at press time.

They open Little Hawkeye Conference play against Grinnell at 7:15 p.m. on Tuesday in Grinnell.

Vittetoe thought his Mustangs would be a good serving team this year, but they missed too many overall on Tuesday.

PCM connected on 84 percent of its serves, but it was when it missed that frustrated Vittetoe the most.

“We talked about places where you can never miss serves like back-to-back or after a timeout,” Vittetoe said. “We give tallies on those and we had at least eight of those tonight.

“I was disappointed that we missed too many serves in the spots we talked about where you can’t miss them. Our serve receive was good for the most part. We limited the aces more this year than we did last year. We gave up way too many aces last year.”

Wilson finished with six kills, three digs and four aces for PCM, while senior Jackie Vos added five kills, four digs and two aces and was 15-of-15 in serves.

Senior Bella Stone had 17 assists, junior Chelsea Bird finished with 10 digs and four aces and senior Lilli Baird was 11-for-11 in serves.

Johannes tallied four kills, senior Riley Hjortshoj added three kills and Block had two kills.

PCM plays in the West Marshall tournament at 9 a.m. on Saturday in State Center.

The Mustangs host Des Moines North at 7 p.m. on Tuesday in Monroe.