Newton volleyball downs L-S, Ottumwa at home tournament

The most successful matches this season for Newton’s volleyball team have come in the Cardinals’ two home tournaments.

Newton won its Early Bird tournament with a 3-0 mark back in August. The final home tourney was Saturday and the Cardinals were 2-2 in the four-match Round Robin.

Like with a lot of matches this season, Newton experienced plenty of ups and downs. The Cardinals started slow before sweeping Lynnville-Sully, fell behind before rallying to beat Ottumwa and let one slip away against Davis County. They also lost in two sets to Class 2A No. 5 Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont.

“I like how we took care of business in our first match, but we did let the Davis County match slip away,” Newton head volleyball coach Heidi Woollums said. “Those were my exact words to the girls. We had a big lead and let them get back into it.

“I liked how we came back against Ottumwa after being down early though.”

Newton (6-16) opened with a 21-14, 21-4 win over Lynnville-Sully. The Cardinals also downed Ottumwa 15-21, 23-21, 15-13.

Davis County defeated Newton 19-21, 21-13, 15-9 and EBF handed the Cardinals a 21-10, 21-16 loss.

The Rockets (23-4) were the best team at the event, finishing 4-0 with four sweeps.

EBF defeated Lynnville-Sully 21-3, 21-8 and the Hawks lost 21-4, 21-8 to Davis County.

The Ottumwa result and statistics from that match were not available at press time. The Bulldogs defeated L-S in two sets.

“Our first 15 points against Newton were great,” Lynnville-Sully head coach Kyra Smith said. “The communication was good and we were going after the ball. We are getting better at going after the ball even if it’s not their ball.

“We are searching for consistency though. We have a young team with 11 juniors. We’ll keep working on it though. We’ll figure it out.”

In the Jasper County matchup that opened the day, Kadance Ahn gave Newton a 2-0 lead with back-to-back kills.

L-S scored the next four points to take the lead, and a diving bump by Elizabeth Elliott that found the floor on Newton’s side gave the Hawks a 7-5 advantage.

The set stayed close until the Cardinals scored the final 10 points to seal the win. L-S led 14-11 at one point but lost 21-14. That 10-0 Newton run featured a long service run and four aces by Ahn and three kills from Delaney Woollums.

Newton controlled the second set behind another strong frame from Ahn. She gave the Cards a 3-0 lead with back-to-back kills and then served up three more aces to push the margin to 15-3. Audrey Rausch also had two aces during a long service run that turned a 3-2 lead into a 10-2 advantage.

“They looked like they were ready to go when they got here, but we always start slow in our tournaments,” Coach Woollums said. “If I can get that figured out, it would save me so much stress and anxiety.

“But our communication wasn’t great in the first set. That needs to be better. It’s been a struggle all season.”

Ahn finished with nine kills and had a .571 kill efficiency. She added seven aces and was 15-of-15 in serves.

Macy Lampe and Emily Wermager each dished out nine assists, Lampe put down three kills and Wermager collected two digs.

Delaney Woollums finished with five kills and four digs and her kill efficiency was .714. Chloe Rorabaugh added two kills, Chloe Swank had two digs and three aces and Hailey Sumpter chipped in five digs.

The Cardinals were 37-of-40 in serves with 12 aces. Lynnville-Sully (5-21) was 18-of-20 with two aces.

Elise Alberts led the Hawks with four assists and five digs, Alexy Conover chipped in two kills and seven digs, Jordan Spooner added three digs and Paige James registered two digs.

Newton rallied after losing the first set to Ottumwa. The Bulldogs (9-13) scored the final five points in the first set to go up 1-0 in the match.

The final two sets were nip and tuck. The Cardinals led 15-5 in the second but allowed Ottumwa to rally for an 18-17 lead.

After that, three kills by Ahn, a blast from Delaney Woollums and a block by Rorabaugh gave Newton an extra-session win.

In the third and deciding set, there were ties at 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 12 and 13. Newton trailed by two points three times down the stretch before kills by Ahn and Rausch tied it at 12-all. The Cardinals won the set three points later.

Ahn finished with 13 kills, 10 digs and five aces in the win. Lampe tallied 16 assists and eight digs, Delaney Woollums contributed six kills and eight digs and Wermager added six assists and four digs.

Swank collected nine digs, Rorabaugh put down two kills and Rausch contributed two digs. The Cardinals were 50-of-54 in serves with five aces.

Newton opened the first set against Davis County (19-13) with a 7-3 lead thanks to three kills and two aces from Ahn. The Mustangs got as close as 14-13, 19-18 and 20-19 before Ahn ended the set with a kill.

“I feel for Kadance because we rely on her a lot,” Coach Woollums said. “I think we have some girls who can take some of that burden away from her, and Delaney is starting to step up, but we still go to Kadance in pressure situations. She pulls through for us most of the time.”

Newton fell behind 12-2 in the second set and couldn’t get closer than six the rest of the way.

In the third set, neither team created much separation until Davis County scored the final four points to win by six.

Ahn put down 14 kills and had two digs, Lampe tallied 13 assists, three kills, two blocks and three digs and Wermager chipped in 10 assists and three digs.

Delaney Woollums registered seven kills and three digs and her kill efficiency was .583.

“I know she can do this. She does this in AAU all the time,” Coach Woollums said about her daughter Delaney. “She’s starting to do it at this level, too. She’s out there because she should be out there. I know it’s tough to be the coach’s daughter and she is trying to prove herself more because of that. She puts a lot of pressure on herself, but she’s definitely getting more confident.”

Swank added five digs, Rorabaugh put down two kills and Sumpter registered two blocks. The Cardinals were 40-of-42 in serves with four aces.

EBF had little trouble with its opponents on Saturday. The Rockets led Newton 7-1 early in the first set and pulled further away to win by 11.

The Cardinals put up a better fight in the second set but still trailed 5-1 and 10-4 before rallying to tie it at 14-all on a Delaney Woollums ace.

The Rockets scored seven of the next nine points though to win by six.

“Eddyville is a strong team, but what I didn’t like about that match was I felt like we started playing tentative,” Coach Woollums said. “We tried to go around their blocks too much and maybe gave them too much credit.”

Lampe dished out nine assists and had four digs, Ahn tallied five kills and three digs and Swank registered three digs. Rausch put down two kills and Sumpter had two digs.

The Cardinals were 24-of-25 in serves with two aces.

Against EBF, Conover led the Hawks with six digs. Alberts added two assists and two digs, Morgan Jones, Abby Squires and Spooner each tallied three digs and James and Natalie Roberts chipped in two digs.

In the loss to Davis County, Alberts finished with three assists and four digs, Conover registered seven digs and Jones had four digs.

Aubree Arthur put down three kills and Squires collected two digs.

The Hawks were 8-of-11 in serves against Davis County and 11-of-11 in the loss to EBF.

L-S played the four-match tournament without varsity regular Carsyn McFarland and varsity up-and-comer Majesta Vos. They both were attending the South Iowa Cedar League West Division JV tournament in Brooklyn.

Smith has seen improvement in her squad since the start of the season. She hopes they continue to trend in a positive direction as the end of the regular season nears.

“Our passes have been better. And because we have spent so much time on our passing, we haven’t focused enough on our hits,” Smith said. “The serve receive is getting better, and the girls are talking more. We’ll continue to work on it, but I think we’ll get there.”