March 28, 2024

Wolverines fall to SWV in home opener

Wolverines end week 4-1

Image 1 of 2

Nodaway Valley’s volleyball squad gave their home crowd a good battle to watch in their home opener last Tuesday night but couldn’t get over the hump and fell in a straight sets match to Southwest Valley.

The visiting Timberwolves, who improved to 5-5 on the season and 1-1 in Pride of Iowa Conference play, won on set scores of 25-15, 25-23 and 25-20.

“Our focus is on the little things,” NV head coach Allison Kiburz said. “I think we had a great effort against Southwest Valley but we need to minimize unforced errors at key times. We have focused a lot in practice on a lot of game situations and ball movement to keep opponents on their toes.”

While the Wolverines were able to keep Southwest Valley on its toes in the second and third sets, it was the Timberwolves who dictated the action in the first set as they found openings in NV’s defense.

Junior 6-foot hitter Jentry Schafer was crucial for the Timberwolves’ offense, finishing with 13 kills for the night, supplemented closely with 10 that came from senior Lexie Haer.

Wolverine sophomore Corinne Bond totaled seven kills to lead the black-and-purple.

In the second set, a 6-1 lead SWV held early led to a NV timeout, which seemed to spark a better result as the frame went on. Strong blocking by the Wolverines and errors committed by SWV helped NV never trail by more than five through the entire set.

A Naomi Daugherty and Bond block brought Nodaway Valley within one when SWV had set point, though the Timberwolves shut the door.

In the third set came much of the same as the Wolverines only trailed by small margins. Schafer gave the Timberwolves a strong start with three early kills, though they had enough to pull away from a 21-20 lead they had late by rattling off the match’s final five points unanswered.

“[Schafer is] a force for them. We knew coming into tonight that their play was going to depend on her. We also knew we needed to keep the ball away from her when we were hitting and that we needed to get hands on her hard hits so it gave our back row a chance,” Kiburz said. “She made our defense move. She’s a competitor, she found our gaps and she hit them.”

Prior to Tuesday’s match, which was also U.S.A. night on the 17th anniversary of the terrorist attacks that happened on Sept. 11, 2001, NV recognized its youth volleyball players. They had the experience of warming up with the Wolverines and being introduced with them in the starting lineups.

“This is the first year since I’ve been head coach that we’ve done this and I think it was a great experience for them and I hope it’s something they’ll remember for years to come,” Kiburz said. “I think it’s very important that the younger athletes see them as role models. We have some great girls both on and off the court and we want to keep that in our program in years to come.

“Hopefully doing this will help the older girls realize the impact they can have on the community off the court and the younger ones can see that example and eventually fill their shoes. The look on their faces and the excitement they had was also something that I reminded the girls that’s why they are here. In the huddle I said, ‘If you come out with at least 75 percent of the excitement that those little kids just had, you will be just fine.”

NV goes 2-1 at Melcher-Dallas tournament, 4-1 to end week

AVOCA — NV topped AHSTW in three sets (17-25, 25-22, 15-13) and Griswold in two (25-18, 25-20).

NV defeated ASHTW thanks to several standout performers. Lexi Shike tallied 14 assists and 10 digs.

Bond posted seven kills while adding two solo blocks and two block assists. McKynli Newbury was 19-22 on serves with seven digs.

In the Griswold win, Bond posted nine kills, Shike added seven assists and was 9-9 on serves and Natalie Yonker dug the ball up 14 times.

Wolverines 2-1 at M-D invite

MELCHER-DALLAS — Wolverine varsity volleyball was in action at Melcher-Dallas’ tournament Saturday, where NV fell to Seymour (19-21, 21-15, 10-15) but defeated Mormon Trail (21-7, 21-11) and Melcher-Dallas (21-15, 21-11).

Bond was NV’s leader with six kills in the Seymour loss and was 9-9 on serves. Yonker had 15 digs and Baylie Speer was 12-13 on serves.

In defeating Mormon Trail, Bond was 8-8 on serves and Mallory Rhoads was 10-11. Shike had nine assists.

Bond had five kills in the M-D win, while Newbury and Shike each added four. Yonker led NV with 10 digs.

After the weekend, NV was and 0-2 in POI play