Colfax-Mingo volleyball spoils Hawks’ Senior Night with four-set victory

SULLY — Colfax-Mingo senior Britney Keeney has started 117 matches in her varsity volleyball career.

But she’s never had a better stretch of consecutive matches than she did this past week during South Iowa Cedar League matchups with Belle Plaine and Lynnville-Sully.

Keeney’s career-best 16 kills led the Tigerhawks to a five-set win over the Lady Plainsmen on Monday, but she backed it up with another 16 kills in the four-set win over Lynnville-Sully on Thursday.

Colfax-Mingo started strong against the Hawks and then recovered after a loss in the second set to down its hosts 25-18, 21-25, 25-19, 25-17.

“I do have a lot of confidence right now,” Keeney said. “I’ve played a lot of volleyball at this level, and I’m getting used to it more now.”

Colfax-Mingo posted its third straight win over the Hawks and claimed a four-set victory for the second consecutive season.

The Tigerhawks also registered back-to-back conference wins for the first time this fall.

“We dug ourselves a hole in conference play so the goal now becomes ‘can we play our best volleyball at the end of the season?’ We know we haven’t accomplished what we wanted to in the conference, but we’ve been really close in almost every one of those losses,” Colfax-Mingo head volleyball coach Mike Hunsberger said. “I love what they’re doing. They’re fighting.”

The Tigerhawks’ win spoiled Senior Night for a group of five Hawk seniors that included Tatum Huyser, Kate Harthoorn, Jaelynn Vander Wilt, Morgan Hay and Lori Yoder.

Eight different Hawks posted at least one ace, but Lynnville-Sully had a kill efficiency of .086 and dropped its fifth straight SICL match.

“We just make too many errors,” Lynnville-Sully head volleyball coach Heather James. “That’s been the theme of the last few games.”

Keeney put down a pair of kills early in the first set, but L-S led 3-2 following blasts at the net by Huyser and Vander Wilt and ace by Yoder.

The Hawks’ advantage grew to 7-2 after kills by Vander Wilt and Olivia Beyer. But a pair of tip kills by Mickey Bucklin brought the Tigerhawks back to even at 9-all.

Colfax-Mingo rallied from two more three-point deficits, and Keeney led the charge. Her first kill during a service run by Katelyn Steenhoek made it 13-11, and Keeney’s block and kill on consecutive points pushed the visitors in front 15-13.

Steenhoek’s long service run started and ended with an ace, and the final point swelled the advantage to 18-13.

Lynnville-Sully (7-12, 3-7 in the SICL) got as close as two before another Bucklin kill and an ace from Keeney extended C-M’s lead back to six, and the Tigerhawks went on to win by seven.

“When we do get down, the start of us getting back up is usually just one really good play,” Keeney said. “That usually is enough for us to play better and turn things around.”

The Hawks evened the match with better play in the second set. A kill and an ace from Penelope Robinson gave L-S an early 3-2 lead, but the set was tied at 3, 4, 5 and 6 before the Tigerhawks (10-12, 3-7) scored four straight that included back-to-back aces by Grace Hunsberger.

A 6-0 run by the Hawks pushed the hosts back in front 12-10, but the set was again tied at 13, 15 and 16.

The Hawks controlled the back end of the second set as an ace by Harthoorn made it 18-16 and a kill by Ava Brummel swelled their lead to 23-17.

The Tigerhawks got within two with a 4-0 run, but L-S closed out the set with a free-ball kill from Isabelle Vos.

Brummel, who ranks second on the team in kills, did not play in the first set due to James starting the seniors for Senior Night.

Vos made her varsity debut and put down a career-best six kills, while Brummel added five kills and four digs.

“We didn’t put (Vos) on the varsity roster at first because she does cross country, too, but Rhylee Rodgers was on a trip,” James said. “We were going to be short in the middle, but (Vos) does a great job for us on JV. She gets her hands on blocks and is not afraid to hit the ball. She works really hard.”

The Hawks got out to a 4-1 lead in the third set, but neither team grabbed much of an advantage after that.

A 4-0 run that ended with back-to-back kills from Keeney and Isabelle Utz pushed C-M in front 5-4, but the set was tied at 5, 6 and 8.

Another kill from Brummel started a 6-0 run that also included another blast from Vos. The Hawks led 18-13 but were outscored 12-1 the rest of the way.

Keeney put down four kills during an 8-0 run that saw C-M push the lead at 21-18. A kill and an ace from Utz helped the Tigerhawks finish off the come-from-behind win.

“I don’t think anything change all that much,” Keeney said. “We started playing better. It wasn’t any big changes. We just figured things out I guess.”

Coach Hunsberger admires the way his team can come back from a deficit but would prefer they not dig themselves such a big hole moving forward.

“It’s about not letting our emotions get too big in the big moments or too down in the low moments,” Coach Hunsberger said. “We need to be more consistent throughout. We’re getting better at it. I don’t think we’ve arrived yet. I think we have more to go.”

The Tigerhawks avoided a big deficit in the fourth set. Keeney opened the frame with back-to-back kills and then consecutive aces by Hope Allen helped the visitors recover from a 7-4 hole.

The set was tied at 9 and 10 before a long service run by Grace Allen helped Colfax-Mingo go in front 15-10. The run included two kills by Keeney and one from Bucklin.

A kill by Vander Wilt kept the Hawks’ margin at five, but a kill from Steenhoek, an ace by Utz and a block by Keeney extended C-M’s advantage to 21-12.

The surplus grew to double digits after a Bucklin block and a Keeney kill. The Hawks closed the gap to seven before C-M finished off the victory with one final point.

Keeney finished with 16 kills, three blocks and three digs and Bucklin posted a career-best 10 kills and added two blocks.

“Both middles played big at the net. They made them alter their swings,” Coach Hunsberger said about Bucklin and Keeney. “It’s moments of learning to play more consistently as a team. We’re trying to stack good points together and then stack good sets together.”

Steenhoek finished with 24 assists, seven kills and 12 digs, Grace Allen added 25 digs and three assists and Hope Allen totaled nine assists and 13 digs.

Utz registered six kills and 15 digs, Macie Porter contributed 12 digs and two assists, Dakota Allen collected two assists, three kills, nine digs and two blocks and Grace Hunsberger put down three kills.

The Tigerhawks were 89-of-95 in serves with 12 aces. Steenhoek served 26-of-27, Utz was 16-of-17, Hope Allen finished 12-of-12 and Grace Allen served 10-of-10.

Colfax-Mingo finished with a kill efficiency of .102. Bucklin’s kill efficiency was .364 and Keeney had a .278.

Harthoorn’s double-double led the Hawks. She finished with 25 assists, 28 digs and two aces. Huyser added nine kills, 20 digs and two blocks, Vander Wilt posted five kills and five digs and Beyer contributed 15 digs.

Robinson tallied three kills and three digs, Addison Collum chipped in seven digs, Brooke Hardeman totaled six digs and Hay and Yoder each had four digs.

The Hawks were 69-of-78 in serves with 10 aces. Addasyn Klein served up two aces, Harthoorn was 20-of-20 in serves and Beyer was 7-of-7.

“It’s disappointing to lose and disappointing for the girls,” James said. “It was Senior Night so we started differently than normal and then went from there.

“As a coach, you have to make quick decisions and they’re not always going to be right. If they do a good job, I don’t want to do much with that, but it’s about figuring out where they fit.”

Notes: Keeney leads the Tigerhawks with 138 kills and 38 blocks and Grace Allen has a team-best 256 digs. … Huyser leads the Hawks with 129 kills, 36 blocks and 263 digs. She left the team’s road match against Keota early due to an ankle injury but returned to play all four sets against Colfax-Mingo. ... The two teams open postseason play this week. The Tigerhawks host Madrid at 7 p.m. on Monday in Colfax, while Lynnville-Sully hosts Baxter at 7 p.m. on Monday in Sully.