Hampton-Dumont-CAL will begin the North Central Conference volleyball season by hosting St. Edmond Thursday.
The 1-0 Bulldogs have just one match under their belts so far, a 3-0 sweep at West Fork on Thursday, August 29. It was an impressive performance by senior Aubryee Showalter with 15 kills, and the team hit a remarkable .338 with only seven errors. Head Coach Sarah Miller on the team’s on-court communication and leadership.
“That’s going to really be key for us, because every single one of them on that court and on the bench, they’re leaders,” Miller says. “These girls just really truly are wonderful and they’re so kind and nice to each other. They have just a great friendship. We’ve got some things that we need to clean up. Definitely there’s some coverage issues and just some maybe miscommunication type things. The thing that I love to see is that we never let that ball hit the floor without a fight. So we’ve been working hard. First of all, we’ve got to start with a good pass. But then our setters have really been working hard on trying not to go to the same place. We don’t want the other teams to be able to just put that block up.”
St. Edmond (5-1) is off to a strong start. They went 4-1 at Saturday’s home tournament, with the only loss coming to #8 (2A) Aplington-Parkersburg. In their last action, they won 3-1 at Storm Lake Tuesday. Mariah Myers has 37 kills on the season, the second-most in the North Central Conference. They also have a league-best serve efficiency at 91.2.
In the last meeting between the teams, Hampton-Dumont-CAL won 3-0 last season. Action will begin at 7:30 p.m.
