Young Mustangs ousted early by North Polk

ALLEMAN — Having swept its conference rival earlier this season, the North Polk volleyball team wanted to send a quick message to the Prairie City-Monroe netters right away Monday.

The Comets jumped out to an early lead and never looked back during their Class 3A Region 6 opening-round match here.

North Polk sophomore Hannah Becker finished with 15 kills and had just one error on the night as the Comets dominated from the start in sweeping the Mustangs for the second time this year, 25-10, 25-18, 25-13.

“We did some really good volleyball things,” said PCM coach Mollie Keitges. “We just have to play more volleyball. We’ll get there if they are willing to work at it.”

The Comets put the Mustangs away early in all three games and PCM couldn’t recover.

The Mustangs got down 11-2 in the opening set, 5-1 in the second frame and trailed 8-1 in the final stanza and ended their season at 9-25. They finished the year losing nine of their final 10 matches.

“Against a team like that, we can’t dig ourselves a hole,” said Keitges. “We can’t let them go on any runs and in all three games, they went on runs to start the game.

“We did some really good volleyball things. We just have to play more volleyball. We’ll get there if they are willing to work at it.”

PCM had just three seniors on its roster. Courtney VanHouweling led the Mustangs with seven kills and seven digs. The rest of the roster is littered with seven freshmen and sophomores and that inexperience reared its ugly head at times this season.

“We’re just inexperienced volleyball players,” said Keitges. “We are working on it. They have improved so much since I took over last year. We played this team so much better than we did when we played in the conference match.”

The Mustangs lost to North Polk in straight sets back on Sept. 11. In that match, PCM only scored 30 points. That number grew to 41 on Monday, but North Polk was too good at the net and from behind the service line.

The Comets (21-11) avoided a first-round upset thanks in part to 13 service aces.

“It was our serve-receive passing. We had some good attacks on the ball, but our serve receive passing broke down and we had push things over and tip things over and that’s hard to defend against,” said Keitges. “Serve receive hasn’t been an issue this year. They are a more aggressive serving team. They certainly earned their aces but we surely didn’t make it tough on them either.”

The Mustangs trailed 4-2 early in the opener, but North Polk rolled off seven straight to take command of the set. The run came on Comet sophomore Gracie Harmeyer’s serve and the setter recorded three aces during that stretch.

Another run later in the frame for the Comets put the Mustangs in an early hole on the scoreboard. After closing to with 17-9, the Comets used a second 7-0 spurt to get to game point.

During that run, Becker had two kills and senior libero Morgyn Bullock served up a pair of aces. Becker had a hitting percentage better than .300 on the night and Bullock chipped in nine digs and six aces.

“She carries the load for the team,” said North Polk coach Susan Nemmers of her sophomore hitter. “We have some other hitters who can produce, but we heavily rely on her to lead.”

The second set was the most competitive. Despite an early 5-1 hole, the Mustangs rallied to 13-11 behind a pair of kills from VanHouweling and a another blast from Karina VanDyke. The Comets tried to put the Mustangs away later but couldn’t close them out until Becker delivered two kills and Lilly Lomica’s attack sealed the deal.

The Mustangs couldn’t overcome an 8-1 start in the third frame. Junior Ashley Van Gorp and sophomore Katie VandeWall tried to keep things close with a pair of kills, but the Comets wouldn’t be denied.

“We wanted to send a message early in the match,” said Nemmers. “That was part of the game plan.”

North Polk hosts Williamsburg in Thursday’s regional semifinal. Williamsburg defeated Bondurant-Farrar in straight sets, 25-18, 25-11, 25-19.

The Mustangs end their season and say goodbye to three graduating seniors — VanHouweling, Mackenzie Clark and Emma Williams.

“I’ve had them the past two years,” said Keitges of her three seniors. “My style is completely different than the coach they had the first two years, so they were really receptive and open to learn what I wanted to teach them.

“They picked it up quickly. It would have been easy to get frustrated but they didn’t and kept plugging away and I think they see the vision we are working toward. We didn’t reach it while they were here, but those three worked hard and showed us great leadership. They are three great kids and we’ll definitely miss them.”

Van Gorp finished with a team-high 10 digs for the Mustangs. She also was 8-for-8 in serves and finished with three kills. VandeWall also had four kills, and sophomore Jayci Vos added eight assists, one ace and was 10-of-11 in serves.

Lomica and Carly Madson had six kills apiece to compliment Becker’s effort. Harmeyer dished out 27 assists and served up four aces. Lomica’s 11 digs also were a match high.

Notebook

VanHouweling ended the season with a team-high 203 kills and 336 digs. Van Gorp collected 274 digs, while Vos collected 292 assists.

Contact Troy Hyde at
641-792-3121 ext. 6536 or at thyde@newtondailynews.com.