Area volleyball roundup: SWV grabs win, Mount Ayr gets valuable experience

Mount Ayr had one of the more busy weeks of volleyball of anyone in the area this past week, mounting its best challenge against several powerful programs over two tournaments in Urbandale and its own home tournament.

The Raiderettes grabbed a 2-1 win over Newton in Urbandale (21-14, 17-21, 15-10), but fell 2-0 to Grinnell (21-17, 21-16), Van Meter (21-14, 21-12) and Des Moines Christian (21-12, 21-6) that same Thursday.

Keirston Klommhaus tallied 31 kills over that four-match stretch, with a high of 13 in the Newton win.

Alyssa Johnson totalled 40 assists over the fourth matches.

At their home tournament, the Raiderettes defeated Wayne 2-0 (21-12, 21-4) and Lamoni 2-0 (21-14, 21-12).

Mount Ayr then fell to Shenandoah 2-0 (21-17, 21-13), Winterset 2-1 (25-12, 16-25, 11-15) and East Mills 2-0 (22-25, 25-27).

Klommhaus went 43 of 47 on serves over those five matches.

MacKenzie Shields tallied five kills in the Wayne victory.

Hayley Whittington led the Raiderettes with eight digs in the Lamoni win and was a perfect 6 of 6 serving as the Raiderettes served successfully on 39 of 40 tries.

Whittington’s seven digs led Mount Ayr in the loss to Shenandoah, as did her 12 against Shenandoah. Johnson also totaled 12 digs against the Fillies.

Samantha Stewart’s 17 digs led the Raiderettes in a the tight loss to East Mills.

UP NEXT — Mount Ayr (6-7, 4-0) hosts Lenox (1-10, 1-4) today (Tuesday).

Earlham 3, Lenox 1

LENOX — Despite competing closely throughout Thursday’s match with Earlham, Lenox did not muster the points needed to pull out a win, falling in four sets.

The Tigers fell 23-25, 15-25, 25-22, 16-25.

Brooke Miller had a strong night attacking, with 13 kills, and also added five assists and six digs to go with her perfect serving night on nine tries.

Katelyn Belding had boosted up 13 assists and registered 10 digs to go with four kills.

Also leading the Tigers in kills were Hannah Davis with seven, TJ Stoaks with six and Camryn Douglas with four.

Brooke Heinrichs (22 of 22) and Kayla Yzaguirre (11 of 11) had perfect serving nights in the loss.

The Tigers could not stop the trio of Cameryn Caskey with 26 digs, Rachel Luke with 32 assists and Taylor Hispley, who smashed home 19 kills.

UP NEXT — Lenox (1-10, 1-4) tries to stop a 10-match losing streak today (Tuesday) at Mount Ayr.

Southwest Valley 3, Stanton 2

VILLISCA — Southwest Valley’s netters swung hard and fast around the net, as the Timberwolves combined for 45 kills in a five-set win over Stanton in Villisca Monday.

Lexie Haer (15) Jentry Schafer (13) and Delaney Dalton (9) combined for 37 kills, and were set up consistently by Hailey Thomas’ 31 assists.

“Lexie Haer was on fire in set one with her hitting. She was lighting it up,” Southwest Valley coach Lindsay Wetzel said. “Her timing was spot on and her arm swing was fast and she snapped hard.”

Thomas also got the attacks going with 12 digs, and Alaina Currin aided the effort with 11.

“Alaina was running all over the back line digging up balls and helping others with in - out calls and helping our defense not take balls that were out. She was a 2.41 out of 3 and had 29 attempts on serve receive and free ball passing,” Wetzel said.

Critical to Southwest Valley’s winning record this season has also been the emergence of reliable athletes like Dalton.

“Delaney Dalton deserves a shout out. She plays full rotation for us and is a valuable asset in the front row as well as with her digging,” Wetzel said. “She is good at reading where the hitter is taking the ball and can dig it up.”

UP NEXT — Southwest Valley (7-5, 3-1) plays host to Nodaway Valley (4-11, 1-4) today (Tuesday).