Newton volleyball suffers season-ending loss to B-F

BONDURANT — Ending athletic seasons can be hard for any coach. Saying goodbye to graduating seniors is even harder.

Newton head volleyball coach Heidi Woollums was extra emotional after the Cardinals’ season-ending loss to Bondurant-Farrar on Tuesday.

Woollums said goodbye to another senior class, but this one included her daughter Delaney.

“Lots of years with these kids” Coach Woollums said as she held back a few tears. “It’s an awesome group of kids. I just told each one of them in the locker room what I loved about them. They are just awesome people.”

The Newton volleyball team showed moments of greatness against Bondurant-Farrar, but the Cardinals were hindered by the Bluejays’ blockers at the net and a subpar night of serve receive during a 25-13, 25-23, 25-17 road loss in Class 4A Region 6 quarterfinal action.

Newton was not very good in the opening set but played much better in the final two frames. The Cardinals rallied from an early hole in the second set but came up short down the stretch.

“That sucks. Mentality-wise that was a tough one,” Coach Woollums said. “I know they wanted to keep playing. We know Norwalk would have been tough on Thursday, but they all wanted one more practice and to just keep playing.

“I think we were a little worried almost instead of just playing relaxed. This was a team we think we can compete with and even beat, but we went out there scared and worried about losing.”

The Bluejays (16-18) led the opening set 5-1, 11-3 and 20-6 before a small run at the end by Newton gave it a little bit of momentum.

Delaney Woollums, who finished her senior season with a career-best 264 kills, kept the Cardinals in the set with a trio of kills that made it 6-4.

Newton stayed within 9-7, but the Bluejays got back-to-back kills from Grace Wignall and eventually forced a Cardinal timeout at 13-7.

“They got some blocks up against Delaney early and if you scout us at all, you know that we struggle if Delaney gets shut down on the first rotation,” Coach Woollums said. “She was blocked on her first four or five swings. And whenever that happens to us this season, everything follows.”

An 8-2 run by Newton tied the set at 15-all and forced the Bluejays into a timeout. Delaney Woollums served up an ace to give the Cardinals their first lead of the set.

A kill by Macy Lampe and a strong service run by Sloan Brodersen extended the margin to 19-16. But the Bluejays rallied with a 5-0 run to force a timeout from Coach Woollums.

Chloe Thurlby served up a pair of aces in during what ended up as a 6-0 spurt, but Newton rallied behind a strong service run from Addison Hook.

Hook’s ace tied the set at 22-all and the Cardinals eventually lead 23-22 before losing the final three points.

“Our serve receive struggling affected us a bunch and their blocking was too much,” Coach Woollums said. “They got their hands on a lot of stuff. They were focused in on (Delaney Woollums) and (Lampe), and that’s not hard to see based on the stats.”

The Bluejays had a 40-21 advantage in kills, a 10-2 surplus in blocks and were plus-nine in aces. Bondurant-Farrar came into the match with 145 more blocks than Newton this season.

Delaney Woollums once again kept the Cardinals (12-17) close early in the third set. Her second kill of the frame trimmed the Bluejays’ lead to 6-4, but Newton called timeout down 9-4 later.

The visitors did get as close as 13-12 and trailed by two a few other times, but Bondurant-Farrar used a 10-3 run to go back up by eight.

One final kill from Lampe trimmed the margin to seven, but the Bluejays ended the match three points later.

Bondurant-Farrar scored on several balls that hit the floor in the middle of the Cardinal defense after tips, drops, serves or blocks.

“It’s that consistency thing we’ve dealt with,” Coach Woollums said. “There are nights where we play lights out, hit the floor and read everything. There are other nights like tonight where we are stuck on our heels. They covered up our hits in the middle and we just let them drop. We were surprised by those for some reason.”

Delaney Woollums finished with 11 kills and nine digs in her final prep match. Lampe concluded her career with seven kills and four digs and Isabelle Rawlins chipped in 21 assists and nine digs.

Swank produced a match-high 25 digs in her final prep match, Lola Rivera added three digs and Brodersen chipped in four digs.

The Cardinals were 55-of-55 in serves with Rawlins going 12-of-12, Swank finishing 10-of-10 and Brodersen, Delaney Woollums and Hook all going 9-of-9. Lampe served 6-of-6.

Newton’s final team serve percentage was 95.2, which currently leads 4A.

“The serve helps us out. We live by the mindset of just give us a chance,” Coach Woollums said. “Let us play the point out after the serve. When we were doing well tonight, we were handling our serve, but when we struggled, it was one and done.

“The flip happened when we started rolling off a few serves in a row.”

Swank contributed 385 digs this fall, which ranks second in school history and is eighth in 4A.

“I’m glad they came out and battled in the last two sets, but I don’t think we ever settled down fully,” Coach Woollums said. “Chloe Swank played amazing. She was one of the ones out there not concerned at all. She just plays.”

Bondurant-Farrar was led by Nora Dodson’s 13 kills, Wignall’s eight kills and nine digs and Mia Keith’s 16 digs. Kai Arens also had 36 assists and seven digs.

Notes: Newton’s senior class includes Lampe, Swank, Rivera, Hook and Delaney Woollums. “The consensus from the team about them is what a great group they are as leaders, as people and how they include the underclassmen,” Coach Woollums said. “They wanted everyone to feel like they were a part of the team. And while some of the wins slipped away that we’d like to have back, something should be said about the camaraderie they had. They looked forward to coming to practice every day.” … This was the first matchup between the two teams in the Bound era. … Bondurant-Farrar has 18 losses but 14 came against teams which either are currently ranked or were ranked at some point this season. The Bluejays have wins over Gilbert, Dallas Center-Grimes (twice) and state-ranked Ballard this fall. They play 4A No. 11 Norwalk in the regional semifinals at 7 p.m. on Thursday in Norwalk.