The Ankeny Centennial volleyball team was on the verge of being swept in its season opener on Monday at Indianola.
After taking the first two sets, the sixth-ranked Indians built a 24-22 lead in Set 3 and only needed to win one of the next two points to close out the non-conference match.
But No. 3 Centennial refused to quit.
The Jaguars scored five of the next six points to win the set, then went on to take the next two sets to complete an improbable comeback. They scored the final five points in Set 5 to close out a 19-25, 14-25, 27-25, 25-23, 15-12 victory.
“I think it’s huge,” said Centennial coach Jessica Rinehart. “We have a ton of new people on the court and this was our first game of the year, so it’s understandable (that we would struggle at times). But this should give the girls a boost in confidence, especially knowing that they can come back like that.”
The Jaguars avenged a four-set loss to Indianola in last year’s season opener. The Indians went on to place second in Class 4A and returned many of the key players from that squad.
“They won last year, but we came back and played strong,” said Centennial junior Tatem Schmidt. “We all worked as hard as we could and played for each other. It feels great.”
Schmidt played a crucial role in the win. She came up with a huge block to close out Set 3, then later smashed a kill for the winning point in Set 4.
“I think we were all kind of tense at first, but then we had a talk and we knew we had to play for each other,” Schmidt said. “We just stepped it up.”
There were eight ties in Set 5 as the two teams traded points back and forth before Indianola eventually took a 12-10 lead. The Jaguars battled back to tie it at 12 on a kill by Jaeden Pratt, then took the lead on another kill by Finley Greiner.
“We had been playing around between a 5-1 and a 6-2 (offense) all summer so we started in a 5-1 and when that wasn’t going well, we went to a 6-2 and Finley came in and gave us a huge spark in those rotations and Tatem stepped up and set well,” Rinehart said. “It was just a few things on our end that changed the ending of the match.”
On the next point, Indianola smashed a hard spike that could have forced another tie. But Schmidt somehow got her hands up in front of her face and deflected the ball back over the net for an unlikely point.
“I just kind of stuck my hands up and hoped that it went over,” she said.
The match then ended on a hitting error by Indianola’s Makenzie Sloan. The Indians lost despite outscoring Centennial, 110-100, in the match.
“I knew it was going to be a battle,” Rinehart said. “I didn’t realize it would go quite like that with such a slow, dismal start for us to have to flip it around. But I think Indianola’s a fantastic team, and I did expect a battle.”
Pratt had 16 kills and 12 digs in the win. Delaney Miller chipped in 11 kills, while Greiner, Schmidt and Sophia Heither each added five.
Setter Maegen Cheeseman dished out 24 assists for the Jaguars. Schmidt contributed 17.
Libero Mya Lei-Butters led the defense with 22 digs. Heither racked up seven blocks, while Schmidt added four.
Miller and Schmidt each went a perfect 20-of-20 from behind the service line. Schmidt had three of the team’s seven aces.
“I think we’re just going to keep climbing uphill,” Schmidt said. “We have so much potential on our team.”
Camryn Overton had 15 kills to lead Indianola, which outhit the Jaguars by a .203 to .178 margin. But the Indians were unable to overcome 11 service errors.
The Jaguars will host the Centennial Invitational on Saturday.