Cardinals fly past Oskaloosa for first LHC win

A big service night and the squad’s most efficient and productive match of the season at the net powered the Newton volleyball team to a sweep against Oskaloosa on Tuesday.

The Cardinals used a big run to pull away from the Indians in the opening set, grabbed an early advantage that wasn’t relinquished in the second frame and held off a late push from their visitors in the final set during a 25-14, 25-17, 28-26 home win in Little Hawkeye Conference play.

Oskaloosa is 25-9 against Newton since 2008, but the Cardinals have won three of the past four matches in the series.

It was Newton’s first three-set sweep over the Indians since Oct. 15, 2013 and the win snapped a six-game skid.

“They came out with a mission tonight and believed in themselves from the start,” Newton head volleyball coach Heidi Woollums said. “If we believe and can play together, we’re a different team.”

Morgan Frehse led a group of five Cardinals who had at least five kills as Newton put down a season-best 50 kills in the win.

The Cardinals also posted a season-high .484 kill efficiency and had only four hitting errors in the three-set victory.

“I told (setter) Isabelle (Rawlins) between set one and two that if it’s working just keep going with it,” Woollums said. “They couldn’t stop (Frehse) on the outside, and we wanted to get her the ball as much as we could and then mix in the others when we needed to.”

Frehse put down 15 kills in the win and had a kill efficiency of .448. But Addie Ratcliff delivered a career-best 11 kills with a kill efficiency of .625 and had just one error in 16 attempts.

The Cardinals (7-9, 1-4) began the opening set with three straight points after an ace by Camryn Klein and kills from Frehse and Emmy Gross.

The Indians closed the gap to 5-4, but Newton countered with three straight that included back-to-back aces by Frehse.

Neither team created much separation as the set was even at 10- and 11-all after three kills by Oskaloosa’s Cadence Grubb.

But the Cardinals scored 14 of the final 17 points in the set to win going away.

“We got some momentum there late,” Frehse said. “When we’re able to put some balls down we can keep things rolling and that’s what we did. I think that momentum carried into game two also.”

Isabelle Rawlins broke the tie with a tip kill and Frehse delivered three kills down the stretch. Rawlins dropped another tip kill between Oskaloosa defenders to end the set.

The senior setter finished with a season-high 41 assists and added five kills, 10 digs and four aces. Rawlins’ kill efficiency was .625.

“I look for an open gap that I can dump it into,” Rawlins said about the tip kills. “If I see a girl pull out through my peripheral vision, that’s when I do it the most, but we have hitters out there who I want to get the ball to also.”

The Cardinals maintained their momentum early in the second set. A 6-0 run that included a pair of kills from Frehse and Addy Cibula and an ace from Olivia Bell pushed the home team in front 7-2.

Newton also had advantages of 8-3, 9-4, 10-5 and 12-6 before another kill from Frehse and an ace by Rawlins swelled the margin to 14-7.

The lead grew to as large as 11 three times before Oskaloosa (4-17, 0-4) rallied a bit late to get back within single digits.

“We played horrific against Grinnell. That was one we thought we should have had,” Woollums said. “We let it slip and didn’t play to our potential, and we talked about how we didn’t want to have that feeling again. They came in focused for practice and watched film the next day and then had fantastic practices on Thursday, Friday and Monday.

“When you make those hustle plays and get the ball back over when the other team doesn’t expect it to come back it can be deflating. Then we built off that the rest of the way.”

The Cardinals missed five serves in the victory and four of them came in the final set.

The hosts forced the first Oskaloosa timeout after building an 8-4 lead.

Cibula and Ratcliff kept the margin at four with a kill apiece later, but Oskaloosa got back in the game thanks to back-to-back aces by Grubb and a kill from Aleigha Burton. Burton’s blast ended a 4-0 run that got the visitors within 13-12.

Gross made it 14-12 with a kill of her own and then Frehse kept the advantage at two with a pair of kills.

Oskaloosa drew even at 16- and 17-all and then took the lead with another kill from Grubb. Ratcliff tied the set again with a tip kill, but the Indians went in front for the first time since the first few points of the set.

Klein served up an ace to get it back to even at 20-all, but the fourth service error of the frame moved Oskaloosa back to the lead.

“I thought (Ratcliff’s) best match of the season was against Grand View Christian, but she bettered that tonight,” Woollums said. “She was blocking, hitting and passing and was all over the place. And just about every time (Gross) hit the ball, she put it down. She’s not super flashy, but she’s consistent and puts the ball where the other team is not.”

The game was tied again at 21, 23, 24, 25 and 26. The Cardinals fought off an Oskaloosa set point after a Frehse kill made it 24-all. Ratcliff put Newton in front 25-24 and 26-25 with two kills and Klein gave the Cardinals their final lead with another kill.

“We showed our mental toughness in that one,” Frehse said about the third set. “It shows we’re a strong team and are capable of doing some positive things. It felt so good to win one at home.”

Frehse added seven digs and three aces to her 15 kills. Ratcliff chipped in two blocks, Klein had nine kills, seven digs and three aces and Cibula and Gross each contributed five kills.

Bell finished with 11 digs, Sophie Greer added four digs and Merissa Schiebel totaled three digs.

The Cardinals were 70-of-75 in serves with 11 aces, which was the second most in a match by the team this fall. Rawlins was 20-of-21 in serves, while Bell finished 15-of-15, Schiebel was 8-of-8 and Frehse served 10-of-11.

Newton has been successful on 94 percent of its serves this season. Rawlins is 133-of-135 and Schiebel is 61-of-62.

“I want us to serve aggressively, but I also want us to have a chance,” Woollums said. “I need the ball served in so we can play it when it comes back to us. Some teams live and die by aces, but we don’t really want to play that way. I would rather give ourselves a chance at the block or the dig or allow them to make a mistake, too.”

Rawlins, who leads the squad with 320 assists, spent a lot of extra time serving during her first two volleyball seasons in Texas.

“I would do stuff on my own and serve for like an hour a day, work on my zone serving and work on my consistency,” Rawlins said. “I aim for 100 percent, but sometimes it falls short.”

Notes: Frehse leads the Cardinals with 143 kills this fall. She had only two hitting errors in 29 chances against Oskaloosa. Klein had one error in 19 attempts and Cibula did not have a hitting error in her 13 attacks. Gross put down five kills in her seven attempts and had a kill efficiency of .714. … Klein leads the team with 90 digs and 21 aces and Ratcliff has 64 kills and a team-best 12 blocks.