Central volleyball has tough week
Central’s Brandy Beatty digs out a ball during a game last week. (Photos by Bev Hamann)
Warrior Chelsia Larson attempts a kill.
By Willis Patenaude, Times-Register
The Central volleyball team suffered another winless stretch last week, dropping both matches—one a hard-fought back and forth battle against Postville and the other in straight sets against Turkey Valley.
Against 3-14 Postville on Oct. 13, the Warriors lost each of the first two sets by 25-23 scores before digging deep to pull out the next two sets 25-11 and 25-17). However, they succumbed in the fifth, losing 15-12. It was a competitive match and one of the Warriors’ best statistically of the season.
On offense, the team had 42 assists, and Ava Pensel easily had a season-high 39 of them. As for kills, Central had more than Postville, 48 versus 36. Several players contributed, including Brandy Beatty with 18, Isabelle Groth with seven, Chelsia Larson and Lexi Loan each with six, Pensel with five and Kaitlyn Wiley with four. The team had 24 kill errors, but also had a .169 kill efficiency. In all, the offense was a total team effort.
The defense was solid, with a combined five blocks from Beatty (three) and Larson (two) and 48 digs. Maddy Wille leading the way with 21 digs, followed by Alivia Keppler with nine, Alyson Feickert with six, Pensel and Beatty each with four and Larson and Loan each with two.
As for serving, the Warriors came through with an 87 percent serve efficiency rate and scored 15 total aces, five by Keppler alone. Beatty, Larson and Wille each had three and Pensel had one.
The second game of the week was on Oct. 15 against Turkey Valley, where the Warriors lost in straight sets, 25-10, 25-12 and 25-22. The team struggled to get the offense going and the defense had difficulty slowing down the Trojans kills and serving.
On the Warriors’ side, Pensel had seven of the team’s eight assists. Other contributors were Beatty with seven kills, Wille with three and Groth and Loan with two kills each. On the game, the Warriors recorded 18 kills on 75 attempts for an efficiency of -.027.
Defensively, Central had four blocks, two by Larson and one apiece by Pensel and Wiley. The Warriors also had 12 digs, four by Feickert and two each by Pensel, Keppler and Beatty.
On the serving end, the Warriors were overall efficient. They had six aces, including three by Pensel and one each by Wiley, Larson and Willie. They also had an 84.8 percent efficiency.
Central finished the regular season with a 3-19 record, and was 1-6 in the Upper Iowa Conference. The Warriors took on Tripoli on Monday, Oct. 19, in the opening round of playoff action.
