Newton volleyball finishes third at home tournament

The Newton volleyball team won its first three matches at the team’s home tournament on Saturday.

The end result was a third-place finish at the Cardinal Volleyball Invitational as Newton downed Boone, Davis County and Lynnville-Sully and fell to Class 2A No. 2 Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont and 5A No. 15 Ottumwa.

“We played solid against Boone, Davis County and Lynnville-Sully,” Newton head volleyball coach Heidi Woollums said. “We had to fight back at times, but we believed and got it done.”

The Cardinals did face some deficits in their first two matches and Lynnville-Sully took the hosts to three sets.

Newton opened its day with a 21-19, 21-18 win over Boone and then swept Davis County 21-12, 24-22.

The Cardinals opened their match with the Hawks with a 21-4 win but lost the second set 21-19 before posting a 15-12 win in the final set.

The 2A No. 2 Rockets defeated Newton 21-9, 21-3 and the 5A No. 15 Bulldogs ended their day with a 21-16, 21-13 win over the Cardinals.

EBF finished 5-0 to win the Round Robin tournament. The Rockets downed runner-up Ottumwa in three sets. Newton finished third followed by Boone, Davis County and Lynnville-Sully.

In the Jasper County matchup between the Cardinals and Hawks, the hosts scored the first 14 points of the opening set. Delaney Woollums did most of the damage as she put down eight kills during that stretch.

The lead grew to 17-1, a kill by Addie Ratcliff made it 18-2 and the Cardinals finished the opening-set win with back-to-back kills by Ratliff and Isabelle Rawlins.

Lynnville-Sully began the second set with four straight points and eventually led 9-3. A tip kill by Alaina Roberts put the Hawks in front 13-6.

Newton’s attempted comeback began with a Macy Lampe kill and then back-to-back kills by Delaney Woollums trimmed the Cardinals’ margin to 15-12.

The Hawks stayed in front by three following another tip kill from Roberts. Newton (9-12) got as close as 18-17, but a kill by Terriyah Carter evened the match at one set apiece.

The Cardinals scored the first nine points of the third set thanks in a part to a pair of kills from Delaney Woollums.

The Hawks rallied to get within 12-11, but Newton ended match by scoring three of the final four points. Lampe’s kill made it 14-11 before the two team’s split the final two points.

Delaney Woollums led the Cardinals with 21 kills and seven digs. Rawlins posted a double-double with 28 assists, 19 digs, three kills and two aces.

Chloe Swank chipped in 25 digs, Lampe added five kills and three digs, Lola Rivera finished with three assists and three kills and Ratcliff put down two kills.

Sloan Brodersen tallied four digs and Emersyn Gross registered two digs.

The Cardinals finished 55-of-56 in serves with two aces. Rawlins was 25-of-25 in serves, while Swank finished 9-of-9, Woollums was 7-of-7 and Brodersen ended 6-of-6. Newton had a kill efficiency of .277.

In the matchup with Boone (6-17), Newton led the opener 16-13 before the Toreadors rallied to tie it at 19-all. The Cardinals scored the final two points to win the set.

Newton scored the first five of the second set, but Boone rallied with an 8-0 run and then led 13-10.

The Cardinals outscored Boone 11-5 down the stretch to earn the sweep.

Rawlins led the Cardinals with 15 assists, five digs and three aces. Swank tallied 14 digs, Delaney Woollums had seven kills and four digs and Lampe put down eight kills.

Brodersen finished with five digs and two aces and Rivera posted two digs.

The Cardinals were 40-of-42 in serves with six aces. Rawlins served 17-of-17, while Brodersen was 8-of-9. Newton’s kill efficiency was .229.

Newton handled Davis County (6-23) fairly easily in the first set, but the Mustangs came to play in the second.

The Cardinals trailed 7-1 and 17-14 before rallying to win. Davis County had set points at 20-19 and 21-20 but couldn’t extend the match. Newton scored the victory on its second match point.

Delaney Woollums tallied 13 kills and three digs, Rawlins had 25 assists, four digs and two aces and Lampe registered seven kills and two aces to lead the Cardinals.

Woollums had a kill efficiency of .423 and Lampe’s was .278. Swank finished with 15 digs, Gross put down three kills, Rivera had three digs and Ratcliff and Brodersen contributed two digs each.

The Cardinals were 39-of-41 in serves with seven aces. Rawlins was 14-of-14 and Swank finished 9-of-9. Newton’s kill efficiency was .389.

The Mustangs got seven digs and five aces from Hayden Humphrey and Alistyn Lawson put down six kills.

In the loss to EBF (25-2), Rawlins had six assists and two digs, Delaney Woollums registered four kills and two digs and Swank had five digs.

Lampe finished with two kills and the Cardinals were 10-of-12 in serves.

Delaney Woollums had seven kills and six digs in the loss to Ottumwa (21-5). Rawlins delivered 12 assists, Lampe had three kills and four digs, Swank had eight digs and Brodersen chipped in six digs.

Addison Hook and Rivera each posted three digs and the Cardinals were 28-of-28 in serves with Lampe and Hook finishing 7-of-7 and 6-of-6, respectively.

Statistics for Lynnville-Sully (8-13) were unavailable at press time. The Hawks opened their day with a 22-20, 21-10 loss to Davis County. EBF downed L-S 21-6, 21-10. Boone downed L-S 22-20, 21-8.

Boone defeated Davis County in three sets to finish fourth in the tournament.