Grinnell spoils Newton Senior Night

On a night when the Newton volleyball team celebrated its seniors and a new school record was set, the Cardinals continued to search for consistency on the floor against Grinnell.

The Tigers started strong, pulled away from a close battle early to win the second set easily and held off a late Newton rally in the third set during a 25-18, 25-15, 26-24 non-conference road win on Monday.

“We didn’t start playing until the third set, and we didn’t start playing in the third set until we got down 11-0,” Newton head volleyball coach Heidi Woollums said. “That’s what so frustrating with this year.

“They have the ability, but they get nervous and have so much self doubt. They worry about things outside the court too much. I don’t know how to get that stuff out of their heads.”

Chloe Swank was one of six varsity players who were recognized for Senior Night before the match. She also is now the school’s new career record holder for digs.

Swank needed one dig to tie 2023 graduate Kadance Ahn for the most digs in school history coming into the match. Her 20 digs in the loss to the Tigers gives her 865 for her four-year career.

“It feels weird. It’s not something you start your career thinking you will or can do,” Swank said.

Swank has been the starting libero for the Cardinals since her freshman season. In part because she’s too short to play anywhere else.

“She’s always willing to put her nose in there” Woollums said. “Chloe is always willing to hit the floor. She doesn’t think twice about it. She plays hard all the time. I hate that the concussion stuff was in there because she would have crushed this record way before tonight.”

After losing the opening set, the Cardinals (6-9) fell behind in the second. A bump that found the floor from Delaney Woollums and a Macy Lampe kill kept Newton within two midway through the game.

The Tigers then used a 4-0 run to go up 16-10 and they never trailed by fewer than five the rest of the way.

Grinnell used a strong serve from Mackenzie McClelland to go up 11-0 in the third set. She highlighted the run with three aces and Kendra Nolton also put down a pair of kills.

The lead grew to 14-1 before the Cardinals made a valiant comeback. Two aces and a block from Isabelle Rawlins highlighted a 5-0 run.

A kill and an ace by Delaney Woollums helped get Newton back within 17-9 and Macy Lampe registered three kills and one ace during a Cardinals’ run of 12-3 that evened the set at 22-all.

“Volleyball is such a momentum game,” Coach Woollums said. “Everything was going there way and I was thinking ‘are we going to score a point.’ And next thing you know, we are in the lead.”

Two points later and following another blast by Delaney Woollums, Newton had set point and forced a Grinnell timeout.

The Tigers (8-8) recovered with four straight points to secure the match victory.

“We finally started swinging on things. We are at our best when we are aggressive,” Coach Woollums said. “We got into a tipping game early and they were aggressive back at us.

“I did like how they fought back in the third set. We started blocking better and pushing some things back in the third set. We got our hands on volleyballs and that does affect things.”

Delaney Woollums led the Cardinals with 10 kills, 10 digs and two aces. Rawlins finished with 22 assists, seven digs and two aces, Lampe added eight kills, four digs and two aces and Addie Ratcliff put down four kills.

Sloan Brodersen tallied five digs and Lola Rivera chipped in two digs. Newton was 55-of-58 in serves with seven aces. Rawlins and Woollums were 10-of-10 in serves, Addison Hook finished 7-of-7, Lampe was 11-of-12 and Brodersen served 9-of-10 successfully. Swank also finished 8-of-9.

The six varsity seniors include Lampe, Swank, Rivera, Hook, Delaney Woollums and Lainey Vander Schel.

“I love this group of seniors. I was crying from the beginning,” Coach Woollums said. “Addison Hook started walking and I started bawling. My love for this group is genuine. They have put in so much time and have always come with a positive attitude.

“They are solid human beings on and off the court. That’s why I want this so bad for them. They are going to be perfectly fine in life whether that’s with volleyball or not.”

Nolton led the Tigers with 13 kills, while McClelland finished with eight kills, 10 digs and six aces. It was Grinnell’s second straight win over Newton and the Tigers have won four out of five in the series.

Notes: Swank currently has 164 digs after posting a single-season best of 267 last fall. “It was hard to lose on Senior Night. We were so close to finishing the comeback in the third set,” Swank said. “We realized that we needed to stop messing up. We needed to work together, put the ball over and work as a team and not as individuals.”