Baxter volleyball serves 19 aces in sweep of Warriors

BAXTER — Baxter’s volleyball team overcame a slow start with another strong serving night on Thursday.

The Bolts faced winless Meskwaki Settlement School and sent the Warriors home with a 25-17, 25-19, 25-17 loss, but the visitors hung around in the final two sets during an Iowa Star Conference South Division contest.

Nineteen aces by the Bolts were a big factor in the win and Mandee Selover put down a career-best 10 kills to lead Baxter’s attack.

Meskwaki did not have enough players for a junior varsity match and fielded only nine players total. The varsity contest was moved up an hour, which created a smaller-than-usual crowd and a quieter atmosphere.

“It was a weird atmosphere, but we eventually got into a rhythm and played how we know we can,” Selover said. “That allowed us to separate eventually.”

The Bolts fell behind early in the opening set, but controlled things most of the way.

Meskwaki (0-16 overall, 0-5 in the conference) led 4-0 and 6-2 in the set before the Bolts rallied. Bailey Littell and Abbie Meyer put down kills to close the gap during a 6-0 run that gave the home team the lead for good.

Meyer’s aggressive serve has created a lot of aces this season and three straight from the sophomore pushed the lead to 13-7 and two more aces after a Selover kill extended the lead to 16-7.

That 8-0 spurt was enough to put away the Warriors. Selover collected three kills and a block down the stretch to close out the victory.

Baxter head volleyball coach Jordynn Wesselink didn’t use the early start as an excuse. She just felt like her squad played down to the Warriors’ level early in each set.

“It’s just an hour early for the start. They should be ready,” Wesselink said. “I think we could have been better. I did have high expectations coming into this one. The girls played hard, but we just didn’t come out that strong.”

The Bolts (8-6, 4-1) fell behind 3-1 in the second set. Julie Damman’s ace tied it at 3-all and it stayed tied at 4, 5 and 7-all before two aces from Evelyn Boothroyd and a kill by Selover highlighted a 4-0 run that put the Bolts in front.

The Warriors stayed close and eventually drew even at 17-all later in the set. Then Meyer took over from behind the service line.

Meyer’s first ace of the set gave her team the lead at 19-18. A Selover kill made it 20-18 and then three more aces from Meyer pushed the margin to 23-18. Meyer ended the set with a kill three points later.

Meyer finished with 10 aces, five kills and two digs in the win. She was 20-of-22 in serves.

“Abbie has a great jump serve. She has spent a lot of time in the offseason working on it,” Wesselink said. “Her focus on the serve is great, and she definitely helped us back there tonight.”

The third set was similar to the second. There were ties at 1, 2 and 3-all and then again at 11 and 14.

An ace by Kelcie Shedd made it 16-14. Then a pair of kills by Selover and two aces by Calleah Frink extended the advantage to 21-15. The Bolts ended the set and the match six points later.

Selover’s career-best 10 kills came with a .421 kill efficiency. She added three digs and was 10-of-10 in serves.

“The sets were there. You won’t be perfect every time, but most of them were good and that allowed me to just swing hard and hit the ball,” Selover said. “We work on serving almost every practice. We’ve put a ton of time in with it and it’s definitely helped us in games like this.”

Wesselink said Selover has been bugging her to get more swings in at practice. The first-year head coach feels like that has helped her senior leader.

“Anything I can do to help the girls get better I will do,” Wesselink said. “So we have been working on hitting all week. Starting from Monday, we saw improvement from the team each day. Mandee did really well tonight and the extra work paid off.”

Damman finished with 13 assists and Karlee Koehler’s four assists came in the third set.

Frink, Littell and Adison Bonney all put down two kills, Frink served up three aces and Bonney added two digs.

Lilyan Headlee chipped in three digs and two aces, Shedd collected two digs and Boothroyd registered two aces. The Bolts were 64-of-71 in serves.

“All I ask of them is to serve it hard. We work on it every single day at practice,” Wesselink said about the serve. “And if they hit it out, they hit out. I just want them to serve it hard every time. That’s my only expectation. They hit a few maybe too hard tonight, but overall the serve was big.”

Notes: Wesselink started the season as the Bolts’ co-head coach, but the Baxter alum takes over the program following the in-season resignation of former co-head coach Janessa Boley.