The #4 (2A) Dike-New Hartford volleyball team put together a crisp performance and swept #5 (2A) Aplington-Parkersburg in Tuesday’s Class 2A quarterfinal at Xtream Arena, as aired on 104.9 KLMJ. The Wolverines won 25-22, 25-12, 25-16.
In the first set, the Falcons took an early 7-3 lead, but the Wolverines raced back and pulled away in the closest set of the match. DNH was firing on all cylinders offensively in set 2, hitting a sizzling .423 to take a commanding advantage. The Falcons scored first in set 3, but the Wolverines scored the next 10 on their way to finishing the sweep. Senior middle hitter Shannon Moorman.
“Our serving got more aggressive, which kept them out of system so that it was easier for us to know where the ball was most likely going to go, so we just could get to that defensive spot and hopefully get a kill out of it,” Moorman says.
Head Coach Diane Harms on the adjustments that led to decisive wins in sets 2 and 3.
“We had some really good service runs,” Harms says. “Our servers did a nice job of finding some good seams and gaps that we talked about where we wanted to try to attack with. And then our defense and our block just made some big plays at the net and our defense kept a lot of balls alive for us.”
AP coach Candace Kleespies says her team was caught out of system throughout the match.
“Serve receive was honestly a large part of it,” Kleespies says. “It’s something that we really have kind of prided ourselves in these last two years that we’ve worked really, really hard and a lot of hours with the serve and serve receive aspects, and just did not have it today. They served the ball really aggressively and hit spots that we just were not able to make adjustments and get the ball up to Bella. We really used our middles and our right pin quite a bit to get us here. And because of being out of system, we just weren’t able to use them.”
Peyton Klooster led the Falcons with eight kills, and the team hit .061.
Izzy Norton led the Wolverines with 12 kills and Moorman had 11 while hitting .588. The team had 10 aces and six service errors.
AP has its season end at 36-7. Dike-New Hartford (30-15) has advanced to Wednesday’s semifinal against #1 (2A) Denver. The match will air on 99 The Wave with coverage beginning at 3:30 p.m., followed by the first serve at 4:00. The Wolverines went 1-1 against the Cyclones in the regular season.
Bella Buseman and Peyton Klooster:
