March 28, 2024

Newton junior varsity and freshman volleyball teams play in East tournament

DES MOINES — Newton High’s junior varsity and freshman volleyball teams competed in a tournament hosted by Des Moines East High School Saturday. The Cardinal freshmen finished second in their division and the NHS junior varsity went 5-5 in sets, winning one match, losing one and splitting two.

“The girls came out ready to play Saturday morning,” said Jennifer Mouchka, Newton freshman coach. “They played hard and had fun. Something we stressed all week. We will learn from our mistakes and come out ready to play Monday night when we travel to Saydel.

Mouchka said everyone was able to play in Saturday’s matches. She said the Cardinals lost some sets that they should have won, but overall, she was very pleased with how the girls played.

Newton’s freshmen beat West Des Moines Dowling Catholic 21-9, 21-6 and Des Moines East B 21-5, 21-14. They lost to Adel-DeSoto-Minburn 21-9, 21-19. They split with Des Moines East A, winning 22-20, losing 24-22, and split with Johnston, winning 21-15, losing 21-12.

Newton’s junior varsity notched a 23-21, 21-13 win over Des Moines East and lost 21-18, 21-16 to Nevada. The Cardinals split with Des Moines Lincoln, winning 21-2 and losing 21-12, and splitting with Indianola, losing the first set 21-9 and winning the second set 21-19.

“The girls played great volleyball this weekend. We worked a lot on serve receive last week in practice and it definitely paid off,” said Mallory Sturtz, NHS junior varsity coach. “We are taking steps in the right direction and improving each week. We are still working on being discipline on defense and putting teams away when we have them beat rather than letting them back in. Overall it was a good tournament and really great to see them working together, having fun, and winning.”

For the NHS freshmen, Liz McVey served up nine aces while Addy Blom, Audrey Lucas and Kinzie Loree each had four ace serves. Bethany Baumgartner and Natalie Camp had three ace serves apiece. Carter Lee served up two aces and Jordan Banfield had one ace serve.

At the net, Lucy Lilienthal had seven kills, five solo blocks and two assisted blocks and Alexis Hoffman put down six kills and made three solo blocks. Camp had six kills and one solo block while Lucas had three kills and a solo block. Blom made two kills, Banfield and McVey each had one kill.

Lee was credited with 41 digs on the day and Mackenzie Johnson had 14 digs. Lucas put up 12 set assists and Banfield had eight set assists.

Newton’s freshmen go to a tournament at Saydel Monday. Newton’s junior varsity and freshmen play at home Tuesday, starting at 5:30 p.m., against Dallas Center-Grimes. The Cardinal varsity plays at 7:15 p.m. Tuesday.

Contact Sports Editor Jocelyn Sheets at (641) 792-3121 Ext. 6535 or jsheets@newtondailynews.com.