VOLLEYBALL: Heart, attitude and effort lead to regional ‘W’

The joy of winning was palatable for Nodaway Valley/OM’s volleyball squad Monday night in Stuart.

The Wolverines pieced three of their best sets of the season together at the right time in capturing the program’s first playoff win since 2020.

Not only that, they did it in dominant fashion, sweeping West Central Valley 3-0 on set scores of 25-13, 25-19 and 25-16, moving along in the Class 2A, Region 4 bracket.

“I think the girls finally played to their potential tonight. The last few matches, I think we struggled with finding energy and momentum. They played so well and I told them I thought this was their best game of the year,” NV/OM head coach Allie Kiburz said. “They started off really strong. They’ve had a lot of different times they’ve played this year where it has been very close matches and they’ve kind of shied away from it. Tonight they really took control of the match and found a way to win points even when it was hard.”

NV/OM trailed in the first set until Izzy Eisbach put away a kill to give them a lead they wouldn’t let go of at 11-10. They were able to build their lead through good hitting and resilient defense from there.

In the second set, Mattie Thompson was effective at the service line, leading the Wolverines out to a 6-0 start. WCV clawed back to tie the set at 17, but the Wolverines executed in a balanced fashion to execute a 7-2 run to finish it.

The Wolverines played from behind in the third set but again utilized cohesive play at the net to gain a lead later on and keep it.

“We stayed positive,” junior Adelaide Livingston said. “Whenever they tried to get momentum we came back fought really hard, stayed up and pushed all the way through.”

Livingston was out for part of this season with an injury but contributed five assists and a dig to the win as the other setter, Mattie Thompson, made 13 assists. The team still employs a 5-1 model but splits it, using Thompson in the back row and Livingston in the front.

“One of the biggest things I’ve learned is you can contribute off the bench whether you’re coming into the game or are on the bench cheering,” Livingston said. “That’s something our team executes really well — we have a lot of bench depth and a lot of people cheering for everybody.”

Senior hitter Kylie Nelson played into a balanced night statistically, finishing with six kills, two blocks, two digs and an ace.

“We’ve been working really hard at how we were going to execute getting to the block, getting down for tips. I think we accomplished that really well tonight, and it helped us pull off the win,” Nelson said. “Our girls are all friends on and off the court, which definitely helps a lot and it makes it easy to build that connection and pull off good plays.”

Senior Emma Boswell also had six kills, junior Addi Herr finished with four, senior Izzy Eisbach and sophomore Taylor Laughery with two each and Thompson with one.

Laughery led with three blocks and Eisbach had two.

Junior libero Allie Cornelison finished with 12 digs and Herr made 10.

Herr had three aces, Thompson two and Laughery and Nelson had one each.

“We put it all together tonight,” Kiburz said. “It wasn’t one person over another. That’s what you need to have a whole team win.”

The Wolverines weren’t able to break into the win column last season. With Monday’s win, this year’s team is 11-24.

“This means a lot. I’ve never won a playoff match before, so this was incredible,” Nelson said. “I really everyone who helped make it happen, especially for my senior year.”

NV/OM was preparing Tuesday to go to Woodward-Granger today (Wednesday, Oct. 22). The Hawks (27-10), who had a first-round bye in the regional tournament, finished second to Van Meter in the West Central Activities Conference.

The winner of Wednesday’s match will face Adair-Casey/Guthrie Center (23-11) or AHSTW (8-26) next Monday. Those two teams were slated to face each other in Guthrie Center Wednesday.

“The biggest approach for us tonight was that we had already played them this year. We knew we were at a similar level to them. When you have that, it’s all about heart, attitude and effort, at that point,” Kiburz said. “Volleyball’s definitely a game of momentum. Whoever makes the least amount of errors and can put a ball away is going to win, and the girls did that tonight.”