Newton volleyball goes 4-1, finishes second at home tournament

Newton and Class 2A No. 14 Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont played twice during the Newton volleyball tournament on Saturday. And both teams finished 4-1 on the day.

Unfortunately for the Cardinals, the Rockets won the one that mattered most and were crowned tournament champions after a two-set victory over Newton in the title match.

The Cardinals used a lot of energy and emotions in the earlier match that resulted in a three-set win.

“We played with such a high level of energy and a high level of emotions, it’s hard to come back and do it again,” Newton head volleyball coach Heidi Woollums said. “Not to mention, No. 1 and No. 11 are phenomenal volleyball players. They took control in that second match.

“I’m not going to harp on the loss. We went 4-1 and had an amazing day. Both teams were 4-1.”

The six-team tournament featured three cross-pool play matches for each squad and a bracketed tournament to decide a champion.

The top seeds in each pool were Newton and EBF. Third-seeded Lynnville-Sully defeated second-seeded Davis County in their tournament matchup and second-seeded Ottumwa downed third-seeded Albia on the other side of the bracket.

The Hawks were 1-4 for the day, but their win came against Davis County in the opening round of the bracket tournament. Lynnville-Sully was the only 1A program in the field.

“We started out really slow. The girls had a busy week and weren’t quite ready to play,” L-S head volleyball coach Kyra Smith said. “After pool play, we started to get things together.

“Getting a win today against this competition was huge. If we would have gone into next week without a win, that would have been hard. We needed to get a win.”

The Cardinals defeated Lynnville-Sully 21-11, 21-13 to open their day. They also downed Davis County 21-7, 21-19 and edged EBF 21-19, 19-21, 16-14 in pool play.

Newton rallied past Ottumwa during its 21-16, 21-19 win in the semifinals and then fell 21-16, 21-16 in the rematch against the Rockets.

“It’s always tough to know with so much going on if they are going to show up in the right mental space and take it seriously, but I think they did. It was a fantastic day,” Woollums said.

It was Homecoming week for both Newton and Lynnville-Sully. The Hawks fell 21-9, 21-14 to Ottumwa and lost 21-7, 21-19 to Albia in pool play. The Hawks rallied past Davis County 13-21, 21-16, 15-9 before losing 22-20, 21-8 to the Rockets in the semifinals.

“We had realistic small goals against EBF, too, and blew those out of the water. I’ll take that 22-20 set,” Smith said. “We learned some things today and played and were tired. We showed up the best at the end. We executed on some hits and still have some things to work on.”

Newton (13-9) fell behind 6-1 in the opening set against Ottumwa in the semifinals.

But the Cardinals chipped away with a Gracie Clayton kill, a kill and an ace from Kadance Ahn and two blasts from Delaney Woollums.

Newton got its deficit to even at 14-, 15- and 16-all before an Ottumwa service error, another kill by Delaney Woollums and another ace by Ahn put the Cardinals in front for good.

Newton’s 20th point came after Macy Lampe made a diving dig to save a possession and then the Cardinals won the set one point later.

The Cardinals jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the second set and were helped out by several Ottumwa service errors the rest of the way.

Kills from Delaney Woollums, Hailey Sumpter, Lampe and Ahn made it 18-16 and Newton eventually edged the Bulldogs (18-6) after another kill by Ahn.

Ahn finished with six kills, 11 digs and three aces in the win. Delaney Woollums added six kills and five digs and Lampe chipped in 14 assists and six digs.

Delaney Woollums finished with a kill efficiency of .429 and Ahn’s was .316. The team’s kill efficiency was .327 and the Cardinals were 37-of-40 in serves with three aces.

“I feel really good going into all the fun stuff tonight,” Ahn said. “It feels really good to finish a busy week with four wins.”

Sumpter added two kills and two digs, Chloe Swank chipped in seven digs and Addison White had four digs. Haylie Ryan posted three digs.

Newton started with a lead in the championship match, but EBF (17-7) rallied behind Northern Iowa recruits Kate and Molly Shafer.

White’s ace made it 5-3 and Ahn kept the Cardinals in front by one at 9-8 and 10-9. Ahn added kills later to make it 12-10 and 14-12, but the Rockets turned a 16-13 deficit into a 21-16 win.

Molly Shafer put down back-to-back kills down the stretch and finished the set with an ace. She had 11 kills in the win.

The Cardinals led 10-5 in the second set thanks in large part to five kills from Delaney Woollums.

But a 10-0 run rallied the Rockets as Kate Shafer served four consecutive aces and finished the run with another ace. Molly Shafer added back-to-back kills to put EBF in front 18-12 and the Rockets went on to win by five.

“I think we played well today,” Lampe said. “The team played great, aggressive and scrappy. That’s how we need to play.”

Lampe finished with 13 assists and four digs, Delaney Woollums added eight kills and two aces and Ahn chipped in five kills and seven digs.

White registered five digs, Swank had three digs and Chloe Rorabaugh posted two digs.

The Cardinals were 31-of-32 in serves with Ahn going 10-of-10.

In the win over Lynnville-Sully (12-9), Ahn led the way with 13 kills, five digs and a kill efficiency of .524.

Delaney Woollums added five kills and four digs, Swank tallied 14 digs and two aces and Lampe chipped in 21 assists and two digs. Sumpter put down three kills and White served up three aces.

The Cardinals were 41-of-43 in serves with eight aces. Lampe was 10-of-10. The Hawks served 18-of-20 with one ace.

Majesta Vos had four kills, three blocks and three digs, Elise Alberts chipped in nine assists and two digs and Alexy Conover added 11 digs and two kills.

Carsyn McFarland tallied four digs and Aubree Arthur added two digs.

Ahn registered 12 kills, three blocks, four digs and three aces in the win over Davis County (8-21). She had a kill efficiency of .500.

Lampe finished with 17 assists and two digs, Delaney Woollums posted six kills, four digs and two aces and her kill efficiency was .545 and Swank added four digs and two aces.

Rorabaugh collected two blocks and Sumpter had two digs and was 10-of-10 in serves. Newton served 42-of-44 and had eight aces.

In the win over state-ranked EBF, Ahn finished with 10 kills, 10 digs and four aces and Delaney Woollums collected seven kills and four digs.

Woollums’ kill efficiency was .375, Lampe finished with 19 assists, two kills and three aces, Swank tallied 13 digs and Ryan had two digs.

The Cardinals were 51-of-54 in serves with nine aces. White and Lampe both served 10-of-10.

“That was a fun match,” said Ahn, who is playing with a strained groin muscle. “We’ve never gotten things to go our way in matches like that, and we are starting to finally turn that this year.”

Lynnville-Sully led Davis County 5-1 in the opening set but lost the lead after the Mustangs rolled off seven straight points. They also ended the game with three straight aces to go up 1-0 in the match.

But the Hawks answered back in the final two sets. An ace by Conover put L-S in front 3-2 in the second set and the Hawks regained the lead later when Arthur’s ace made it 10-8. A kill by Arthur pushed the lead to 17-13 and a serve error by Davis County ended the set and forced a third game.

The Mustangs led the final frame 4-1, but two aces by Conover and a kill from Arthur put L-S in front 6-4 and a kill by Vos extended the margin to 12-7 before a Conover kill ended the match.

“We just struggled with serve receive way too much and we work on that all of the time at practice,” Smith said. “You see what we could be up against come regional play. This is a tournament at the end of the year so we hope to be playing our best volleyball. With Homecoming and some other things, we maybe weren’t playing our best ball today, but it’s a good tournament to be in with regionals closing in.”

In the loss to Ottumwa, Alberts had five assists and two digs, Arthur chipped in three kills and two digs, Conover added two kills and six digs and Paige James finished with two kills and three digs.

McFarland tallied five digs, Alaina Roberts had four digs and the Hawks were 23-of-24 in serves with two aces.

In the loss to Albia (17-9), Conover led the way with 13 digs and two kills, Alberts added nine assists and six digs and James posted six kills and two digs.

Roberts finished with six digs and two kills, Morgan Jones chipped in three digs, Arthur and Vos each put down two kills and McFarland tallied two digs.

The Hawks were 24-of-25 in serves with one ace.

In the first-round win over Davis County, Conover had four kills, five aces and seven digs, Alberts tallied eight assists, three digs and two aces and Arthur chipped in five kills and two digs.

Roberts registered five digs and two aces, McFarland added seven digs, Vos put down three kills and Jones collected three digs.

L-S finished 44-of-50 in serves with 11 aces.

In the semifinal loss to EBF, Roberts finished with five digs and two aces, Alberts had six assists and two aces and Conover tallied two kills and five digs.

Arthur put down two kills and added three digs, Vos had two kills, McFarland tallied three digs and Jones posted two digs. The Hawks were 22-of-29 in serves with six aces.

The Cardinals won seven matches in each of the last two seasons, but the four victories on Saturday nearly doubled that total for the season.

“That feels great. We’ve had a goal to get a win total like that so it’s nice to see it happen this year,” Lampe said. “Our program has progressed so much in all the years I have been playing.”

Notes: Ahn does not plan to play volleyball in college, but she was hoping to prove she belonged in the same conversation as the Shafer twins. “I know I have to be smarter in that situation because they are taller than me and hit harder than me,” Ahn said. “I don’t try to out-swing them, I just try to outsmart them or outplay them.” … Ahn currently ranks eighth in 4A with 221 kills and seventh with 39 aces. She also has 176 digs. “The only thing that gets in Kadance Ahn’s way is Kadance Ahn. She’s been incredible these last few weeks,” Coach Woollums said. “I think she’s right up there with the best in the state. Her volleyball IQ and the way she sees the court is amazing to watch.” … Lampe now has 363 assists this fall. She credited everyone but herself after recording her 1,000th assist last week. “It means a lot. I couldn’t have done that without my hitters, passers, coaches and teammates and everybody,” Lampe said. “It’s crazy to think about.” … White is 99-of-99 in serves so far this season. With a minimum of 208 serves required, Sumpter is tied for 10th in 4A with a serve percentage of 94.8. Woollums is 148-of-152 and Lampe is 166-of-174.