Aces push Eagles past Newton volleyball

PELLA — Pella Christian's volleyball team served up 18 aces during its sweep of Newton on Tuesday night.

The Cardinals missed 12 serves on their end and struggled to slow down the Eagles' runs during a 25-17, 25-19, 29-27 road loss in Little Hawkeye Conference action.

"We allowed too many 5-7 point runs to win tonight," Newton volleyball coach Kim Florke said. "We finished each set tough but had just dug ourselves too big of a hole."

Senior Kate Callaghan had 22 assists, six kills, two blocks and three digs to lead the Cardinals, which fell to 9-12 overall and 1-4 in LHC matches.

Senior Kynnedei Terpstra finished with a season-high 12 kills, two aces and two digs, freshman Kadance Ahn had four kills, seven digs and two aces and senior Meg Callaghan chipped in two kills, two blocks and three aces.

"Kynnedei Terpstra had another very good match for us," Florke said. "We just need to get everyone on the same page, put it all together and win. We see great things from them. Again, we just need that consistency."

Senior Katie McConnell had seven digs, senior Riley Davidson added four digs, senior Tess Brunsmann chipped in two kills and two digs and senior Kayli Green collected a pair of blocks.

The Cardinals were 53-of-65 in serves with Ahn leading the way at 15-of-16.

Eleven of Pella Christian's 18 aces came from Avey Amelse, who also had 13 kills and five digs. The Eagles improved to 13-7 overall and 2-3 in the LHC.

Newton plays in its home tournament at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday at Berg Middle School. The other teams involved in the round-robin tournament include Class 1A No. 9 Belle Plaine, Davis County and Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont.