Tigerhawks hold off North Mahaska in SICL thriller

NEW SHARON — One night after North Mahaska needed five sets to defeat previously unbeaten Lynnville-Sully, the Warhawks were in another battle with Colfax-Mingo.

But the Tigerhawks would not let their South Iowa Cedar League rivals go 2-0 against Jasper County schools.

Colfax-Mingo lost a 2-1 lead in the match but recovered to take down the Warhawks 26-24, 17-25, 25-18, 20-25, 15-13 to stay unbeaten in conference play.

The Tigerhawks evened their overall record to 4-4 and are now 2-0 in SICL matches. They started the season 0-3 but have since won four of their last five matches.

North Mahaska is 4-3 overall and 2-1 in the league.

Junior setter Kyra Lester led the Tigerhawks with 40 assists, 22 digs, four kills, three blocks and two aces. Junior Morgan Van Dyke finished with 21 kills, 19 digs and four aces.

Sophomore Caylee Cunningham tallied 10 kills and 23 digs, senior Kira Warrick had 23 digs and a pair of assists and senior Chelsey Temple chipped in seven digs and six aces.

Junior McKayla Smith finished with seven kills and two blocks, junior Melany Vry had four kills, three digs and two blocks, sophomore Carley Underwood tallied six digs and sophomore Abi Rawlins collected four digs.

The Tigerhawks struggled a bit from behind the service line, finishing 89-of-103. Lester was 12-of-12, Temple served 22-of-23 and Warrick finished 14-of-15.