One of the axioms in sports is that it’s difficult to beat the same team three times.
When that opponent is a talented young squad that has continued to get better throughout the season, it’s even tougher to do it a fourth time.
That proved to be the case for the Ankeny volleyball team on Monday in the Class 5A quarterfinals at the state tournament.
The third-ranked Hawkettes dropped a 25-15, 25-20, 29-27 decision to No. 6 Waukee Northwest at Xtream Arena in Coralville. The Wolves (27-9) avenged three earlier losses, including a five-set thriller on Oct. 8 at Northwest.
“We’ve worked a lot in practice,” said Northwest coach Jodi Vogt. “We studied film and just saw where their weaknesses were and how they attacked us, and we tried to hone in on everything that we didn’t do right the first three times to fix it. We’ve been working on it for awhile. The girls did a great job of executing everything today and just playing with confidence and having fun out there.”
Ankeny finished its second season under coach Liz Baethke with a 36-5 record. The loss ended the Hawkettes’ 11-match winning streak.
This was Ankeny’s seventh consecutive trip to the state tournament, but the Hawkettes haven’t reached the semifinals since 2021. They were swept by Valley in the quarterfinals in 2022 before losing to Ankeny Centennial in five sets last year.
Northwest is the defending champion, but returned just four letterwinners from that team. The Wolves start five sophomores along with junior Avery Vogt.
Two other underclassmen also played in Monday’s match, including freshman Avery Cordes.
“Why not now?” Cordes said of the Wolves reaching their potential before some had anticipated. “That was our team motto going into this tournament, and I think we can go really far because we are all really talented. We are young, but we are talented.”
Logan Vogt led Northwest with 15 kills, while Piper Ladwig chipped in nine. Cordes and Cassidy Danburg each added seven kills for the Wolves, who outhit Ankeny by a .174 to .064 margin.
Avery Vogt dished out 39 assists. London Taylor racked up 18 digs, and Danburg added six blocks.
Northwest finished with 17 blocks, while the Hawkettes had just four.
“We definitely adjusted to picking up on the roll shot like in the donut of the court, just like closing the block and really shoving them out of system so they couldn’t run their middles,” Cordes said.
Reagan Hanfelt and Kamryn Scheib each had nine kills in their final match for Ankeny. Baileigh Carlsen, another senior, recorded 26 digs.
Miya Steinkamp and Gracyn Adams each had 15 assists. Hanfelt also had three blocks, while Scheib contributed the team’s lone ace.
The Hawkettes had won seven of the 10 sets against Northwest this season.
“We just had to take care of the little things,” coach Vogt said. “And when you have a young team, sometimes you can only teach them so much at one time. But they’ve worked so hard in practice, and it was fun to see.”
Ankeny took an early 5-3 lead in Set 1 before the Wolves answered with an 11-3 run. An ace by Cordes capped the run and gave Northwest a 14-8 advantage.
The Wolves eventually scored the last five points to close out the set.
Ankeny then held a 10-8 lead in Set 2 before Northwest rallied. The Wolves scored the next four points to take the lead and later used a 7-3 run to close out the set.
There were 12 ties and three lead changes in Set 3. The Hawkettes took a 21-17 lead on back-to-back kills by Raquel Risk, but Northwest refused to go away and forged a tie at 23-23.
Ankeny twice regained the lead, the second time on a kill by Maya Ridgeway, but was unable to convert a pair of set points. Northwest took a 26-25 lead on a kill by Cordes, but Scheib then answered with one of her own to tie the score again.
The Hawkettes fought off another match point before Northwest eventually closed it out on a kill by Ladwig.
“We really had to make those adjustments if we wanted to beat them,” Cordes said. “I think we did a really good job. I’m just really proud.”
Northwest will play No. 2 Centennial (32-4) in the Class 5A semifinals on Wednesday at 10:25 a.m. It’ll be a rematch of last year’s semifinal, which was won by the Wolves in five sets.
“It’s always fun to play Centennial,” coach Vogt said. “That’s going to be a dogfight. I have a lot of respect for coach Jess(ica Rinehart) and her program. It’ll be a fun day of volleyball.”
The Jaguars won two of three meetings during the regular season.
“We just have to have a lot of grit and really just believe that we can, and then I think we will succeed,” Cordes said.
