NV volleyball caps regular season with win over MSTM

Nodaway Valley volleyball flipped the script from one match to another last week, coming back from a Tuesday five-set loss at home against Lenox to beat Martensdale-St. Marys on the road Thursday in four.

The matches set the Wolverines up with the two-seed in this week’s Pride of Iowa Conference Tournament, which gave them a home match Monday against Martensdale-St. Marys. The winner advanced to Tuesday’s semifinals and finals at Mount Ayr.

“I think Tuesday we came out a little not ready,” Nodaway Valley head coach Allie Kiburz said. “It was Senior Night, so we maybe lost a little of our focus, then Lenox seems to play their best game against us too. We had some tough competition this week. The girls just needed to refocus. We were kind of in a rut and had lost a couple in a row. Coming back Thursday for a win was really big for us.”

MSM opened Thursday’s match with a 25-14 win in the first set, but the Wolverines regrouped and won the remaining frames 25-17, 25-12 and 26-24.

Senior Maddax DeVault had season-high marks with 20 kills and 27 digs. Sophomore Lindsey Davis had 35 assists and 21 digs. Junior libero Madison Long had 15 digs.

Davis had two aces, as did senior Whitney Lamb.

Senior Anna Parrott led the Blue Devils with 16 kills.

“From Tuesday, I think our energy was definitely up,” DeVault said. “That helps a ton. It’s nice to have free balls and get in those long rallies, but eventually somebody has to put it away, and I think that’s what we did [against MSM].”

Against Lenox, the Wolverines held a two-set lead with 25-22 wins in sets one and two. The Tigers came back to post back-to-back 25-23 wins before finishing off the match 15-13 in the fifth frame.

Freshman Sadie Cox (23), junior Cadence Douglas (19) and freshman Zoey Reed (11) each had double-digit kills for Lenox, set up by 14 assists from senior Brooklynn Ecklin and 13 from Reed. Douglas had 12 solo blocks.

Davis had 30 set assists for the Wolverines. DeVault had a team-high 15 kills.

DeVault (21), Davis (20), Long (15), senior Rose Lonsdale (15) and sophomore Genevieve Livingston (11) all had double-digit digs.

From the service line, Lonsdale powered six aces.

Hall, DeVault, Lonsdale, Bailey Steffens, Cadee Firch, Madison Carstens and Lamb were honored with their parents prior to the Lenox match for Senior Night. Photos can be found on the Adair County Free Press Facebook page.

“We got to play quite a bit together [as seniors] and that helps. We had the energy and wanted to be out there,” Carstens said, listing positives from early on in the Lenox match.

Nodaway Valley learned its Class 2A regional position. The Wolverines are in Region 3 and have received a first round bye. They will play Oct. 20 at Adair-Casey/Guthrie Center. Win against the Chargers and they will face either Southwest Valley, Panorama or IKM-Manning Oct. 25 in Corning.

“Tuesday was pretty hard on all of us, it was a tough game,” senior Hailey Hall said. “Coming back to beat Martensdale, it really boosted our confidence going into the POI tournament next week and regionals the week after that.”