(Story by Stephen McDaniel)
Of all the gyms that the Ankeny volleyball team has played in throughout the fall, the Hawkettes closed out their regular season in one that’s more than familiar to coach Liz Baethke.
The second-year Ankeny coach returned to Urbandale on Tuesday to help guide the Hawkettes to a 3-0 sweep (25-9, 25-4, 25-19) over a J-Hawks team that she’d previously coached for more than two decades.
“Sometimes you make decisions and they’re hard,” Baethke said. “I think there’s a point where you can’t look back. I appreciate the years of service I had (at Urbandale), but it’s also good for me to have some change.”
Before Baethke made the transition into coaching for the Hawkettes, she coached Urbandale for 23 seasons and compiled a record of 589-279-14 with nine state tournament appearances along the way.
In her final season with Urbandale in 2021, Baethke led the J-Hawks to a 33-9 record. Her team reached the Class 5A quarterfinals before falling in five sets to Ankeny and its Hall of Fame coach, Dave Whims.
The timing just ended up being right for Baethke to take over the Ankeny program going into the 2023 season with the departure of then-coach Dani Kohut Lynch.
Baethke guided Ankeny to a 24-15 record and a trip to the state tournament in her first season and now the third-ranked Hawkettes are firing on all cylinders in her second season at the school.
Ankeny owns one of the best winning percentages in Class 5A at 33-4 overall, while tying for second in a loaded CIML Conference with No. 4 Dowling Catholic at 6-2 in league play.
The trip to Urbandale on Tuesday closed out the regular season for the Hawkettes as Baethke coached against her former Urbandale assistant and now J-Hawk coach Amy Hobert.
“It’s fine, we’re friends,” Baethke said of playing her former assistant. “I feel like every coach in the CIML, we’re very close colleagues and we need each other for support. I always feel that in every gym I walk into.”
The Hawkettes looked every part of the No. 3 team in the state as they cruised to a sweep over an Urbandale team (2-28) that’s having a down year as compared to past seasons.
Ankeny rattled off an 8-0 run early in the first set to build up a strong lead. An 8-2 run gave the Hawkettes a 20-5 lead going into a timeout, and they closed out the set shortly thereafter.
The second set went even better for the Hawkettes, who only gave up four points the entire set. Urbandale’s last point of the set cut Ankeny’s lead to 13-4 before the Hawkettes proceeded to go on a big 12-0 run to close out the set.
With a big lead, Ankeny made it a point to make sure that every player on the roster got a chance to get some playing time and spent a large chunk of the third set swapping players in and out.
Urbandale held its only two leads of the match at 1-0 and 2-1. But once the Hawkettes pulled ahead, they remained in the lead until the end despite the much closer set.
“With the starters in, we were playing very clean and very organized,” Baethke said. “On the other end of the spectrum, it was pretty cool to get every single kid in the match, because as of like (Wednesday), I can only suit 15 kids. I’d love to see that extended some day like the boys do to 18.”
Kamryn Scheib ended things with her 11th kill of the night and only trailed Reagan Hanfelt’s 13 kills for most on the team. Ankeny finished with 46 total kills with Maya Ridgeway contributing seven, while Olivia Eike and Marlee Ellison added four each.
Scheib and Hanfelt each had three of the team’s 10 aces. Madi Anselme recorded two that helped close out the second set with the back-to-back points.
Gracyn Adams dished out 21 assists in the win. Ellison had three blocks, and Ilana Coleman racked up eight digs.
Now with the regular season out of the way, the Hawkettes are prepping to make their run through Class 5A Region 3 and return to the state tournament.
Ankeny will host Cedar Rapids Jefferson (6-26) or Cedar Rapids Washington (2-29) in a semifinal on Thursday, Oct. 24 at 7 p.m. The winner will meet either No. 14 Iowa City High (14-12) or Waterloo West (16-14) in the regional final on Tuesday, Oct. 29.
