Saturday’s Marj White Classic at Valley showed just how many good volleyball teams are in the CIML Conference.
The host Tigers, who entered the tournament ranked 10th in Class 5A with a 2-5 record, defeated all five of their opponents in the round-robin event to win the title. They closed out the day with a 21-15, 13-21, 15-12 victory over No. 3 Ankeny.
“They had a really good day,” Ankeny coach Liz Baethke said of the Tigers. “Everyone just says the same thing–they’re hard to figure out. They keep people off-balance, and they just seem to have chemistry and they don’t make a lot of mistakes.”
Valley knocked off No. 1 Dowling Catholic after being swept by the Maroons in a conference match on Tuesday. The Tigers also defeated No. 4 Waukee Northwest, No. 8 Iowa City Liberty and Waukee.
The Hawkettes, meanwhile, went 3-2 on the day. They are now 8-4 on the season.
“I was pretty happy overall,” Baethke said. “Toward the end of the week it just seemed like we were low energy at practice so I was a little bit concerned. And we did get out of the gate a little slow, but I thought our match with Dowling went way better than our (season) opener.”
Ankeny opened the tournament with a come-from-behind win against Northwest. After dropping the first set, the Hawkettes rallied for a 15-21, 21-17, 15-11 triumph.
Kamryn Scheib had eight kills in the win, Reagan Hanfelt chipped in seven, and Aowyn Schrader added six. Lauren Dockendorff and Cloey Wiederin combined for 19 assists and four aces.
Ava Wille led the defense with four blocks. Baileigh Carlsen racked up 14 digs.
Ankeny followed with a 21-18, 21-9 victory over Waukee, defeating the Warriors for the second time in five days. Scheib led the way with eight kills and two aces, while Hanfelt added six kills, three blocks and two aces.
Dockendorff contributed nine assists and seven digs. Megan Rembert also had seven digs.
The Hawkettes then dropped a 19-21, 21-10, 15-13 decision to Dowling. Scheib had seven kills in the loss, and Hanfelt chipped in five.
Wiederin and Dockendorff combined for 15 assists and four aces. Carlsen racked up 15 digs, while Ady Brecht had three blocks.
“Aowyn was hurting again with her elbow, but she pushed through it,” Baethke said. “We didn’t have her for about half of the day, and I think if we had had her for the Dowling match we might have ended up winning. But you never know.”
Ankeny bounced back with a 21-17, 21-14 win over Iowa City Liberty. Wiederin and Dockendorff combined for 17 assists.
Schrader had six kills and two blocks. Hanfelt contributed five kills, two blocks and three aces, while Scheib added five kills and seven digs.
Schrader pounded nine more kills in the loss to Valley. Scheib had five kills and 11 digs, while Hanfelt added five digs.
Dockendorff finished with 13 assists. Wille had three blocks, and Carlsen chipped in 14 digs.
“We just didn’t really play clean today, but it wasn’t bad,” Baethke said. “The girls all played pretty consistently and played together, but we still have work to do. The good thing is that we haven’t played anywhere near the best that we can.”
The Hawkettes will travel to Johnston on Tuesday for a conference match against the No. 5 Dragons (10-1).
