New London, Winfield-Mt. Union advance in SEISC volleyball tournament

BY ANDY KRUTSINGER

Mt. Pleasant News

MEDIAPOLIS ? Two Henry County teams have advanced to the Southeastern Super Conference tournament final this weekend.

Both New London and Winfield-Mt. Union moved on to the tournament finals, which will take place in Mediapolis on Saturday, Sept. 24.

New London, who dropped out of the Class 1A top 15 rankings this week, swept all four of their matches at Notre Dame in Thursday night?s tournament opener.

They picked up 2-0 wins over Cardinal, Pekin, Columbus and the 11th-ranked Nikes. Their wins over Notre Dame came 21-18 and 21-18.

W-MU went 2-1 in the Mediapolis pool, defeating Central Lee 2-1 (13-21, 21-14, 15-10) and IMS 2-0 (21-12 and 21-14) before falling 2-0 to the 10th-ranked (2A) Bullettes (21-10 and 21-9). They finished the pool in second place out of four teams.

The Wolves were led offensively by Pearl Krieger-Coble and Lexee Hartsock. Krieger-Coble finished the day with 12 kills and Hartsock had 11. Sophie Kongable had a big day as well, netting 45 digs and going 33-35 serving with two aces.

In Wayland, the WACO volleyball team finished third in their pool, but only the top two finishers from each pool moved on.

WACO picked up 2-0 wins over Van Buren and Louisa Muscatine but were swept by Highland and Wapello to keep them out of Saturday?s finals.

New London will play Highland in the first round of the SEISC tournament finals. With a win, the Tigers would get matched up with the No. 10 (2A) Mediapolis vs. Lone Tree winner in the semifinals.

W-MU will play No. 6 Holy Trinity in their first round game. The winner of that game will play the winner of Wapello and No. 1 Notre Dame in the semifinals.