The Ankeny volleyball team was poised to possibly move up in this week’s Class 5A rankings following Thursday’s impressive victory in the Jag-Hawk showdown.
Now, the No. 4 Hawkettes might be fortunate to hold onto their current ranking.
Ankeny traveled to Dowling Catholic on Tuesday for its fourth consecutive CIML Conference match on the road and dropped a 21-25, 25-20, 25-22, 25-17 decision to the No. 6 Maroons. The Hawkettes had won the previous three matches at then-No. 11 Johnston, Southeast Polk and No. 3 Ankeny Centennial.
“We weren’t ready to play,” said Ankeny coach Liz Baethke, whose team was outhit by a .322 to .183 margin. “It was our first weekend off and we had homecoming, and I always feel like there’s a weird energy after that. Dowling was in the same boat, and they came out a little bit off at first but then got their game plan together and kept attacking and executing. We just had no answers.”
The win allowed Dowling to move into sole possession of second place behind No. 1 Waukee Northwest (6-0). The Maroons are 4-1 in the league and 12-8 overall, while Ankeny’s records dropped to 4-2 and 21-7.
The Hawkettes will now have another weekend off before hosting Northwest on Oct. 7. The Wolves (25-1) won an earlier meeting at the Centennial tournament on Aug. 30.
“Once you’re in the thick of (your schedule), having too much time off is just as much of a killer as playing too much,” Baethke said.
Ankeny got off to a good start in Tuesday’s match. The Hawkettes scored the first three points and led all the way in Set 1, eventually closing it out on a kill by Teagan Moyer.
However, Baethke was concerned that her team was already losing some of its momentum.
“I thought toward the end of the first set I noticed the energy dropping, so that’s always a little concerning,” she said. “Normally, we’ll dig in and work our way out of it, but we just kept getting frustrated and weren’t scrapping for the ball. Just our normal energy wasn’t there tonight. Hopefully, it’s a lesson learned.”
The second set featured 15 ties and 10 lead changes. Ankeny went on a 3-0 run and took its biggest lead, 17-15, on an ace by Marlee Ellison before the Maroons answered with a decisive 7-1 spurt.
Dowling regained the lead for good on a kill by Kennedy Klein, who combined with her sister Kaylie, Ellie Muller and Ava Groeteke to give the Maroons a variety of potent weapons throughout the match. Those four players combined for 46 kills.
“We haven’t really seen a lot on film as far as their ball control,” Baethke said. “But we went away from our game plan of being aggressive serving and attacking. We just didn’t have it tonight, and Dowling played their butts off.”
Muller closed out Set 2 with a kill, then Dowling never trailed in the pivotal third set. The Maroons built a 24-19 lead and then wasted three set points before Muller smashed a kill to give her team a 2-1 advantage.
In Set 4, Ankeny took an early 2-1 lead before the Maroons eventually built a 19-10 margin. The Hawkettes went on a 6-1 run and closed the gap to 20-16 on a pair of kills by Moyer, but Dowling then scored five of the next six points to close out the match.
“We have to come and be prepared to play our style of game every time,” Baethke said. “It can’t just be a one-night thing or a one-team thing. That’s what we keep striving for.”
Hailey Wiederin led Ankeny with 14 kills, while Moyer chipped in 11, Ellison had nine, and Elle Isaacson added eight. Miya Steinkamp dished out 21 assists, and Macie Kohl added 18.
Quinn Roush racked up six blocks to lead the defensive effort. Hailey Flanders had 16 digs.