Triton coach reaches milestone

Fourth-ranked Iowa Central showed a varied attack in gaining coach Sara Horn’s 300th career victory Tuesday night at Southwestern.

The Tritons improved to 23-3 overall and 7-1 as co-leaders of the Iowa Community College Athletic Conference Division II race with a 25-15, 25-18, 25-12 sweep on Pink Out Night at Southwestern during their annual breast cancer awareness event.

Horn reached her coaching milestone in her 11th season directing the Iowa Central program. Southwestern held two early leads — 3-0 in set one and 6-5 in the final set — but the Tritons kept the Spartan defense scrambling much of the night.

“I think the biggest thing was adjusting our defense to how they were hitting and tipping, finding the open spots we had,” Southwestern coach Taylor Shipley said.

Assistant coach Parker Evans, a former libero for the Spartans, said serve receive is an area for improvement against a strong service team and attacking team like Iowa Central.

“Having that strong communication base, talking to each other about what seams are covered, that’s what is important to not have that scattered play,” Evans said.

On the positive side for Southwestern, Meredith Gettings was part of a front line that got more touches than some recent matches against the hard-hitting Iowa Central attack, and Sophie Lyle was effective at the service line with a pair of aces.

For the night, Samira Baade led the offense with five kills. Hallica Warren-Anderson and Greta Peton each had three kills. Emily Strait had a team-high 12 digs and Lexi Hahn added eight. Setters Beatriz Goncalves and Jayda Chew had nine and seven assists, respectively.

Southwestern, now 2-13 overall and 1-7 in conference play, faces another nationally-ranked opponent Thursday in traveling to No. 12 DMACC, which shares the league league with Iowa Central and Kirkwood.

SWCC statistics

Kills —Samira Baade 5, Hallica Warren-Anderson 3, Greta Petofi 3.

Blocks — Greta Petofi 1, Hallica Warren-Anderson 1, Meredith Gettings 1.

Setting assists —Beatriz Goncalves 9, Jayda Chew 7.

Digs — Emily Strait 12, Lexi Hahn 8.

Service aces — Sophie Lyle 2.