March 29, 2024

Atop the Pride of Iowa

Southwest Valley beats Nodaway Valley 3-0, securing POI championship

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AFTON – It was all Southwest Valley Tuesday night.

With the best record in the Pride of Iowa the Timberwolves entered the Tuesday’s quarterfinal the on-paper favorite to win the annual Pride of Iowa Conference volleyball championship.

At 20-4, and ranked in the IGHSAU’s top-15 at one point this season, the Timberwolves continued the roll they have been on this season with a 3-0 quarterfinal win over Lenox and a 3-0 win over a stingy Nodaway Valley in the final.

The championship final between the Timberwolves and Wolverines opened with a back and forth between the two teams.

Trading blows, neither side had a clear advantage, despite SWV holding a three-point lead at 13-10.

The lead was cut on a Maddax DeVault serve to a tie game and Nodaway Valley started to apply pressure. Four straight after gaining serve at 14-14 gave the Wolverines its biggest lead of the set at 18-14.

However, on Delaney Dalton’s serve, the Timberwolves ran off a 7-0 run that included kills from Marah Larsen and aces from Dalton to pull the score back into SWV’s favor.

A break made it 21-19, but NV regained serve and took the lead at 22-21 on four straight points. The lead bounced between both teams before SWV had the advantage at 24-23, one point from taking the 1-0 set lead.

NV battled, and a block from Corinne Bond, paired with playing the ball off the ceiling, resulted in an attack attempt going out of bounds to tie the game up at 24-all.

A Lund kill off a block attempt put Southwest Valley ahead, but a powerful attack from Nodaway Valley resulted in the Timberwolves being unable to cleanly receive the ball. The ball bounced the wrong way for a point, evening it again at 25-all.

The energy shifted enough into Southwest Valley’s favor to end the dramatic opening set, getting a kill from distance to go with a Jentry Schafer kill which the Wolverines were expecting.

NV went up for the block on what it expected to be a hard hit from Schafer, but instead she tipped it the other way softly, landing into open space for the 27-25 set win.

In the second set NV and SWV continued to match each other’s tempos, with the Timberwolves opening up an early 5-0 advantage the Wolverines clawed back to make it a tie game at 13-13.

From 13-13 to 20-20, neither side had more than a one-point lead. Back-to-back points from Southwest Valley, one coming off a failed Bond block attempt, gave the Timberwolves the lead with a small amount of insurance.

The insurance wasn’t enough as two points off DeVault’s serve closed it to 22-22. A missed flip from McKynli Newbury turned the serve to SWV where it ran off three straight points for a 25-22 set win.

The Wolverines and Timberwolves continued the close affair into the third set, but a 12-3 stretch to close out the third set gave Southwest Valley the win at 25-13.

A Kayley Myers kill capped off the contest as Southwest Valley took its 12th consecutive match and its sixth in a row where it has not lost a set.

Nodaway Valley head coach Allison Kiburz knew this match up was going to be a tough one entering it.

“The girls know each other very well and they know who’s going to hit where and we know it’s going to be tough every single time we play them,” said Kiburz. “They’re a really persistent group and so are we so it comes down to who’s going to finish in the end and it was them.”

Southwest Valley head coach Lindsay Wetzel believes the 3-0 win over Nodaway Valley says a lot about her team.

“I think it says a lot,” said Wetzel. “It’s hard for any team to beat Nodaway Valley in three straight. I think that first set was extremely crucial, so for us to pull out that win ... really helped and helped the momentum. The kids have really wanted this.”

Southwest Valley was led by Schafer’s 16 kills on 42 attempts. She also had two blocks.

Isabelle Inman had 40 assists with nine digs and 10 of 11 serving. Myers had the high in digs with 13, along with 10 kills and a block.

NV was led by Natalie Yonker’s 30 digs and 18 of 18 serving. She had one ace.

Bond posted four solo blocks and had 12 digs with eight kills in the loss. Her eight kills tied DeVault for the team-high. Lexi Shike had 17 assists and 12 digs, going 11-for-11 on serve.

Battling Lenox

The quarterfinal against Lenox saw the Timberwolves battle early, but never lost the lead in the first set. The Tigers pulled it as close at 5-3 before Southwest Valley pulled away to make it 18-8. A short 5-2 stretch for Lenox pulled the Tigers within six, but it wasn’t enough as SWV took the first set 25-9.

In the second set the Timberwolves and Tigers kept it at a one-point or tied game from 6-5 to 11-9, when Lenox gained a two-point lead. The score evened back up at 12-12 and stayed tight down to the wire.

Despite a 24-22 lead, Lenox was unable to hold of SWV as the Timberwolves closed the set with four straight points.

In the final set the Timberwolves reeled in a 13-6 margin off of Isabelle Inman’s serve and after it was broken, two aces from Norah Lund tied it up at 15-15. Lund’s serve ended at 18-15, a three-point difference which was enough for SWV to move on to the final with the 25-20 set win.

Wetzel knew this Tigers team was different from what she saw this season with two regulars in the rotation not playing the last time the two crossed paths.

“Two of them were out with injuries,” said Wetzel. “So starting from scratch, we knew one was a setter, so we knew offensively they’d be better than before. I just watched as much film as I could and did the notes and that helped. I think we played a little flat off and on there, but they really pushed us. It was good, overall.”

Lenox felt it was able to get past Nodaway Valley, as long as it was able to crack the set column.

“The first game wasn’t very competitive and the next two were competitive,” said Lenox co-head coach Jesse Cox. “We just made a couple of mistakes and I think we would have had a chance if we got that second set. I think we could have got a third after that.”

Myers and Schafer each had 15 kills in the win, both team leading. Myers’ 17 digs were the high and Inman’s 29 assists also led the team.

Delaney Dalton had four kills and 10 digs while blocking a shot and Lund was 15-for-15 at serve with five digs.

Lenox was led by TJ Stoaks in kills with 10. She also had 10 digs and five blocks.

Cassidy Nelson had four kills and six digs along with two aces. Jordan England also had three locks with two kills.

Lauren Christensen had eight aces on 14-for-14 serving.

Beating the Eagles

Prior to Southwest Valley, the Wolverines beat East Union in the semifinals 3-0.

The Wolverines came out of the gates firing on all cylinders, taking a 10-3 lead.

The lead then turned into a 23-11 lead, but a Newbury volley didn’t make it over the net to change serve to the Eagles.

EU’s Mikala Sanson held serve for four points, making it 23-15, but the short service rally wasn’t enough to bring the Eagles spirit to life in a 25-16 set loss.

The Wolverines followed up the set with an 8-5 advantage early on, but the margin closed to 12-11 after NV ran out of volleys. The one-point game stayed until 21-20 when a trailing NV closed out a 5-3 run on Whitney Lamb’s serve to win the second set at 26-24.

Nodaway Valley then booked its ticket to the next round by gaining 20-15 lead over the Eagles and not letting EU close it out in a 25-20 set win.

A DeVault flip into space capped off the quarterfinal ‘W’ for NV.

“I knew they were bigger than us, they have a lot more students than us so that’s going to make their job a little more easier,” said East Union head coach Gail Thatcher. “Sometimes they can fill that fifth or sixth position and we have to make it. .. I thought we were right in there and I wish I could have played them earlier in the season so I know more about them. We were coming in blind and had to go after it.”

NV was led in kills by DeVault’s 15. She had 10 digs on 14 of 15 serving.

Lexi Shike had 21 assists and 11 digs along with three kills. Bond had four blocks and 14 digs with nine kills also.

EU had Alyssa Weinkoetz lead in kills with 14. Quinn Eslinger had nine assists and Jayden Welcher had 20 digs.