The Urbandale volleyball team didn’t have any answers for Ankeny Centennial senior middle hitter Sophia Heither.
So the Jaguars just kept feeding her the ball.
Heither pounded 13 kills on Thursday to lead fifth-ranked Centennial to a 25-7, 25-13, 25-20 road sweep over the J-Hawks.
“We usually try to establish the middles pretty early when we play,” said Heither. “Tonight, it was all just clicking really well so we just kept running it until they stopped us, and they never really did stop us.”
Heither smashed a kill to close out the first set, then had another one to close out the second set. In Set 3, Urbandale rallied and cut its deficit to 11-9 before Heither answered with back-to-back kills to halt the J-Hawks’ momentum.
Heither eventually pounded another kill to close out the match.
“We were just passing so well,” said Centennial coach Jessica Rinehart. “The ball was right there every time to feed (the middles). That was a piece (of our game plan), plus it was open and it was working.”
Centennial’s other senior middle hitter, Sidney Rogers, contributed seven kills in the win. She posted a .700 hitting percentage, committing no hitting errors in 10 total attacks.
“Sidney hit really well against Ankeny (on Tuesday), so we talked about getting her more sets when she was in there so we were able to do that,” Rinehart said.
The Jaguars avoided a third consecutive loss while improving to 2-2 in the CIML Conference and 14-5 overall. Urbandale’s records dropped to 0-4 and 3-11.
“It doesn’t matter who is on the other side of the net,” said Heither, who also had three blocks. “We just want to keep playing the same way every single match.”
Rinehart said the Jaguars were anxious to get back onto the court following a four-set loss to their crosstown rival two nights earlier.
“That’s always a hard loss, so to get back out there and get a better result always feels good,” she said.
After easily winning the first two sets, Rinehart was able to substitute liberally in the final set. Sixteen different players saw some action for Centennial, including eighth grade setter Elin Whitver–who chipped in five assists.
“We wanted to get some people into this match because we do have a lot of seniors,” Rinehart said. “We were also trying out a couple of different looks so that we’ll have them in our back pocket when we need them.”
Freshman outside hitter Madi VanBruggen matched Heither with 13 kills. Emma VandenHull dished out 17 assists, and Kenna Sorensen added 16.
Bailey Snyder had a pair of blocks. Kaelyn Rinehart racked up 11 digs and also had two aces, while Ellie Pollock added eight digs.
Pollock also completed 19-of-20 serves. Taylor Gilbreaith added a pair of aces.
Centennial will host a conference match against No. 9 Valley on Tuesday. The Tigers are 2-2 in the league and 11-6 overall after dropping a four-set match at No. 3 Ankeny on Thursday.
