When asked about her team prior to the start of the season, head coach Katrina TerHark felt their strength lay in the fact that the returners have played a lot of volleyball at a higher level of competition. “The only problem is, our potential weakness is not having as much varsity experience as in years past,” she said.
She feels the keys to the season are to become more consistent and play tough defense to force the other team to make the mistakes. “Our serving, and serve receive, has to be on for every match,” said the coach. “We need to work to get better every time we step on the court so we can control the controllables.”
That hard work started last Saturday. In what has become routine, the C-G-D volleyball team took yet another Cowgirl Invitational title and as usual they didn’t drop a set all day.
They defeated the Eagle Grove Eagles to start their morning, with scores of 21-10 and 21-7. The team served at 100 percent efficiency, with Lexie Lane 11 of 11 (with five aces) and Clarissa Hasty 10 of 10 (three). Nikki Kapka had three assists at setter, with Summer Traub making two. Lane pounded three kills, with Hasty and Kapka at two apiece. Kapka and Delia Swanson each made a solo block.
They followed that with a win over Belmond-Klemme by scores of 21-14 and 21-12. Team serving was at 97.6 percent with Kapka 10 of 10 (one). Karlee Lehman had two assists, with Hasty, Lane and Traub all getting two successful spikes for points each. Kennedy Trca and Traub went above the net for a solo stop each.
They defeated South Hamilton by scores of 21-17 and 21-14, with team serving at 92.7 percent. Lehman was 12 of 13 (four) and Lane 9 of 9 (three) from behind the serve line. Lehman set for five assists and Kapka four, with Lane making an even dozen kills. Hasty save four balls, with Indy Johnson and Lane making three digs apiece. Traub managed a solo block.
They defeated Estherville-Lincoln Central by scores of 21-11 and 21-16. Team serving was at 87.5 percent, with Lehman 9 of 11 and Hasty 7 of 8. Lehman handed out nine assists, while Hasty made eight kills and a solo block.
They took down North Butler by scores of 21-12 and 21-18. Team serving was 91.9 percent, with Lehman 11 of 11 (one). She also set for seven assists, helping Hasty to six kills and Lane five. Lane had nine digs, while Hasty, Kapka and Lehman made one solo block each.
They took care of NCC foe Clear Lake by scores of 21-11 and 21-17. Team serving was at 90.2 percent, with Kapka 10 of 10 and Hasty 9 of 10 (three). Kapka and Lehman had six assists each, with Lane registering seven kills in the attack mode. Trca made two block assists.
Serving totals for the day showed Kapka 41 of 41 with two aces, Hasty 40 of 45 with three, Brooke Askelsen 34 of 34 with one, Lehman 34 of 38 with one, Lane 31 of 32 with four and Johnson 22 of 25 with three.
Lehman totaled 29 assists, Kapka 24 and Traub 11. Lane led in digs with 32, followed by Hasty at 23, Johnson at 21, Askelsen at 18 and Lehman at eight. Lane tallied up 37 kills, with Hasty at 27, Trca at 18 and Kapka at ten.
“I thought we came out and played very well for our first outing,” stated TerHark. “We have been spending a lot of time working on our serve receive and we really did a great job with that. We came a long way from the start of the day to the end, playing with confidence and if we didn’t have a lead we worked from behind and showed some great determination. The girls should be proud of how they played.”
