Motivated Tigerhawks down L-S in SICL volleyball matchup

COLFAX — Colfax-Mingo’s volleyball team has shown plenty of flashes this season. But a lack of consistency has often gotten in the way of a lot its matches.

That consistency improved for the Tigerhawks on Monday and they played one of their best matches of the season during a 25-21, 25-22, 25-21 home win over Lynnville-Sully during South Iowa Cedar League play.

“We’ve been begging for the consistency we saw tonight,” Colfax-Mingo head volleyball coach Mike Hunsberger said. “We have shown flashes all season and are starting to piece those flashes together.

“What’s special about tonight is, while Trinity (Smith) obviously had a huge night, it was a team win across the board. There wasn’t really anyone who had an off night. There were so many pieces to this win.”

Trinity Smith did have a big night. And her double-double led the way. But five players had at least three kills, eight tallied at least three digs and the Tigerhawks produced eight blocks and eight aces in the victory.

Lynnville-Sully played the match without top hitter Tatum Huyser, who leads the Hawks with 69 kills and entered the match as the team’s leader in digs with 111.

L-S will now have to rely on even more youth and inexperience as Huyser is expected to miss the rest of the season with a bad sprain. The Hawks’ rotation on Monday featured three freshmen and three sophomores.

“We did some good things tonight, but we also hit the ball out of bounds too many times, and that makes it tough to try to get the game to go our way,” L-S head volleyball coach Heather James said. “We’re still trying to find the groove because we have a lot of young players with a lot of talent. We just have to figure out where their best place on the floor is.”

The Hawks (8-9, 1-3 in the SICL) got off to a strong start in the opening set. A pair of aces from Jakeira Hay helped the visitors to a 5-0 lead early.

After a Colfax-Mingo timeout, the hosts chipped away at its deficit and four straight points closed the gap to one.

The Hawks went back up 11-7 on kills by Kate Harthoorn and Ashlan Cordes, but Smith took over from there. She put down three kills during a 6-0 run and then added two more kills and an ace to push C-M’s advantage to 17-13.

The back-and-forth nature of the set continued as L-S closed to 17-16 before three straight from C-M extended its lead back to four. The margin was never fewer than three the rest of the way.

“I just told them to breathe. We know what we are capable of and it was just about resetting,” Hunsberger said about the conversation he had with his team during the early timeout. “I asked them to give me one point and then we’ll worry about the next point after that.”

L-S scored the first point in all three sets, but C-M used a 10-2 run to grab an advantage in the second set. The run featured three kills from Smith, a kill and an ace from Britney Keeney and a kill and an ace from Grace Hunsberger and Isabelle Utz, respectively.

L-S battled back to get within 10-7 and 12-10. Kills from Utz and Dakota Allen later made it 13-10 and 15-12, and the Tigerhawks maintained at least a two-point surplus until the Hawks forced a C-M timeout at 21-20.

The visitors briefly tied the set at 21-all before the Tigerhawks (5-7, 2-3) scored four of the final five points to close out the set.

“It was nice to see us respond to their points and their runs,” Coach Hunsberger said. “We took it one point at a time and matched their energy. That was awesome to see.”

Coach Hunsberger doesn’t want to rely solely on Smith, but it’s nice to be able to go to a first team all-conference hitter when things go sideways.

Smith helped the Tigerhawks rally from a 5-1 hole in the third set. She put down four kills during a 10-2 run that turned the deficit into an 11-7 lead.

Smith’s ace pushed the lead to 13-9 and a Utz kill made it 15-10 later. The Hawks rallied to get within 17-16, but two more kills from Smith and an ace from Cadence Linn extended the margin to 21-17.

Smith leads Colfax-Mingo with 121 kills and 116 digs this season.

“We struggle more when we are just Trinity,” Coach Hunsberger said. “So we want (Steenhoek) in her first year as the starting setter to move the ball around.

“There are times when you just have to go to (Smith) and that’s a blessing because she’s so good. We’ve encouraged her to step into that senior leadership role and go get us that point when we need it.”

Hay put down another kill that ended a run of three straight from L-S, but C-M again scored four of the final five points to end the match.

The final point of the set came on a kill from Smith, who finished with 25 kills, 12 digs and two aces. Her kill efficiency was .385.

“I found the holes and had probably the fewest errors I’ve had all year,” Smith said. “We were overthinking it at times. We just needed to play loose and fix a lot of our own errors.”

Smith also said the Tigerhawks had a little bit of extra motivation. And the student section made sure the Hawks knew about it.

“There was a Snapchat from one of the Lynnville-Sully girls that was mocking the way we hit the ball,” Smith said. “Obviously it’s not how we hit, but we all got super hyped about it. That’s why our student section kept saying ‘we hit like what?’” We were all pretty fired up from that and, it did motivate us.”

Lynnville-Sully defeated the Tigerhawks in five sets in each of the past two seasons. The Hawks are 12-4 in the series since 2011 but are now 1-7 in their last eight matches this season.

Finding the best lineup moving forward that does not include Huyser is a work in progress for James and her coaching staff.

“It’s unfortunate because (Huyser) would get her hands on a lot of blocks and is a very strong player all the way around the court,” James said. “So now we’re trying to find out what that new normal will look like and are just putting the pieces together.”

Katelyn Steenhoek finished with 30 assists and six digs. Kaylee Collins added four assists and 11 digs, Keeney chipped in three kills, three blocks and five digs and Utz added five kills, three digs and three aces.

Steenhoek is in her first season as the team’s starting setter, Collins is starting at libero for the first time and Utz is a freshman who made her ninth career start on Monday and leads the team with 24 aces.

Allen added three kills, three blocks and four digs, Grace Hunsberger put down three kills, Linn tallied seven digs and Macie Porter chipped in five digs.

The Tigerhawks were 67-of-73 in serves with eight aces. Smith served 11-of-11, while Keeney was 14-of-15, Linn finished 9-of-9, Collins ended 8-of-8 and Steenhoek served 8-of-9.

Colfax-Mingo posted a kill efficiency of .180, while L-S finished .177 with five aces. The Hawks were 60-of-62 in serves.

“To see this one not be 3-1 or 3-2 is a good sign for us,” Coach Hunsberger said. “We’ve seen flashes like that but the match didn’t end in three. To see them be as consistent as they were tonight, I’m just proud of the team as a whole.”

Harthoorn finished with 13 assists, two kills and four digs and Homecoming Queen Alaina Roberts registered 12 assists, four kills and six digs.

Hay tallied seven kills, eight digs and three aces, Ava Brummel put down eight kills, Cordes posted five kills and Breah Lowry had four kills. Terriyah Carter registered six digs and Sevanah Routier collected four digs.

Brummel’s kill efficiency was .273 and Roberts (12-of-12), Harthoorn (10-of-10) and Carter (9-of-9) were perfect from behind the service line. Hay served 15-of-16 and Lowry was 8-of-9.

“We did have three freshmen playing tonight,” James said. “I think it’s just trying to find who’s on with their serves and their passing. We tried different things tonight. It just wasn’t enough to take home a win.”

Notes: Both Colfax-Mingo and Lynnville-Sully went a full seven days without playing a match due to Homecoming last week. “We are still figuring out what we’re all capable of,” Smith said. “The past week was a lot of hitting and serve receive. We probably struggle the most with serve receive.” … While the Hawks are playing several freshmen and sophomores, the Tigerhawks have a handful of players in new roles, too. That includes Collins, who’s in her first year as the starting libero after making 11 starts in the back row last season. She’s already set a career high for digs with 99. “Her effort is always on,” Coach Hunsberger said. “She never brings less than 100 percent effort and that’s huge in that position.”