Aggressive serving leads C-M volleyball to win on Senior Night

COLFAX — The Colfax-Mingo volleyball team served up 14 aces against Keota on Monday night.

But even the serves that didn’t go directly for points were effective during the Tigerhawks’ 25-11, 25-15, 25-12 sweep of the Eagles on Senior Night.

Aggressive serving from multiple jump servers in the Colfax-Mingo lineup led to 11 missed serves but also forced Keota out of system during most of the South Iowa Cedar League matchup.

“I think our serving was the key to the whole match,” Kaylee Collins said. “They struggled with serve receive, and we cannot always get our serves in so being consistent helped us a lot.”

Collins was one of our four senior players who were recognized before the varsity match. Trinity Smith is another senior varsity starter, but Emma Cook and Alyssa Clements also made their first career starts.

“They are both leaders at the levels they play on,” Colfax-Mingo head volleyball coach Mike Hunsberger said about Cook and Clements. “To put them in there, it honors their work as a part of this team. It doesn’t matter if you play varsity, JV1 or JV2, you are a big part of this team.”

The new lineup didn’t affect the Tigerhawks’ start against Keota. Colfax-Mingo led 8-0 out of the gates and never looked back in the opening set.

The lead improved to 10-1 before the Eagles rallied to get within 11-7. When Smith, the team’s leading hitter, got to the front row, the Tigerhawks once again extended their lead.

Smith’s tip kill made it 12-7 and then the hosts led 17-9 following another Smith kill, an ace from Cadence Linn, a block from Katelyn Steenhoek and a combo block from Smith and Grace Hunsberger.

Smith served up six aces in the match and three of them came late in the opening game. The first was at the beginning of C-M’s 8-0 run that ended the frame.

“It was awesome,” Coach Hunsberger said. “There were some high emotions for Senior Night, the student section got them into it and it was fun to watch them enjoy it.”

The Tigerhawks (8-11, 4-4) scored first in every set. They led 5-1 in the second frame. A kill by Smith and a combo block by Britney Keeney and Isabelle Utz put the hosts in front 10-6 and Steenhoek’s ace pushed the margin to 13-8.

Keota (3-14, 0-10) hung around for a few more points. It closed the gap to 15-12, but the Tigerhawks scored 10 of the final 13 points in the set to go up 2-0 in the match.

Smith’s long service run took C-M from up five to up 10. She had an ace during that stretch and Steenhoek added a tip kill.

Keeney’s long service run to open the third set broke a 2-all tie and keyed an 8-0 run by the Tigerhawks. The stretch included two aces by Keeney and kills by Smith and Grace Hunsberger.

C-M led 10-2 after the eight consecutive points and improved the margin to 12-3, 14-3 and 16-5 after kills from Smith, Hunsberger and Utz.

Keeney produced another ace and a kill during a stretch that pushed the Tigerhawks’ lead to 21-8. The Eagles never got closer than 11 the rest of the way.

“We know when we have played clean volleyball and controlled our errors, that’s when we’ve played well against our opponents,” Coach Hunsberger said. “We’ve spent the last few weeks just cleaning up our own game. It comes down to doing what we know we’re capable of and playing clean volleyball.”

Smith finished with nine kills, six digs and six aces to lead the Tigerhawks, while Steenhoek chipped in 15 assists. Utz tallied four kills, two digs and two aces, Collins produced seven digs and two assists and Keeney tallied two kills and three aces.

Macie Porter registered five digs, Linn collected three digs and Grace Hunsberger put down three kills.

The Tigerhawks were 62-of-73 in serves with 14 aces. Utz served 6-of-7 and Colfax-Mingo finished with a kill efficiency of .258.

Collins was 10-of-10 from behind the service line and is now 141-of-144 this season.

“It’s crazy. It goes by fast,” Collins said about celebrating her Senior Night. “It’s surreal. I don’t think it will fully hit until later. It was a good way to go out.”

Keota was led by Grace Konger, who finished with 14 assists, five digs and two aces. Niveah Gutierrez put down seven kills and Kimberly Clarahan collected 18 digs. The Eagles served 31-of-39 and had six aces.

Notes: Colfax-Mingo bettered last year’s seven wins with a victory over English Valleys on Thursday. … Collins plans to play volleyball collegiately at Graceland University. Smith hopes to also play but is still undecided on a school. … Smith now has 691 kills and 682 digs in her prep career.

Colfax-Mingo 3, English Valleys 1

NORTH ENGLISH — The Tigerhawks served 11 aces and posted 10 blocks during their four-set win over English Valleys on Thursday.

Colfax-Mingo won tight sets to begin and end the night during a 26-24, 19-25, 25-15, 25-23 SICL road win.

“We need to not let ourselves get tired of working on the fundamentals and getting better every day,” Coach Hunsberger said. “We like the momentum and growth we’re seeing. We are starting to peak at the right time.”

Smith finished with 19 kills, nine digs and four aces, Steenhoek delivered 29 assists, four digs and three aces and Keeney added 10 kills, four blocks and three digs to lead the Tigerhawks.

Dakota Allen registered two kills, two blocks and five digs, Grace Allen and Collins each had nine digs and Grace Hunsberger put down four kills.

Linn chipped in four digs and two aces, Utz had three digs and Porter posted two digs.

The Tigerhawks were 84-of-94 in serves with Steenhoek finishing 16-of-16. Utz served 13-of-14 and Smith was 10-of-11.

Colfax-Mingo won two straight matches for the first time this season. English Valleys fell to 6-17 and 2-5 in the conference.