New London grounds Eagles in sweep

NEW LONDON - The game of volleyball is made up of many facets. While Keota was blocking well at the net Monday, New London was serving and hitting well.

The Tigers attacked through the serve of Marah Hartrick to take a 3-0 win over the Eagles and advance to Thursday's Class 1A regional semifinal.

Seventh-ranked New London (28-8) will face WACO (23-11), which swept North Mahaska (16-12) 25-17, 25-19, 25-14.

Keota ends its season with a record of 5-17.

'We were getting our hands on the ball with our blocking,” Keota head coach Sky Hahn said. 'We did a good job with that but then we did not follow through with the hitting. Putting all the pieces together was what we couldn't do.”

'I thought our girls looked very composed,” New London head coach Maureen Heath said. 'We did not make a lot of mistakes and we handled the ball very well.”

Addison Swanson's block got Keota on the board and a kill by Taylor Kindred pulled the Eagles within 6-3 in the opening set, but the Tigers got kills from Keaura Williams and Addie Pry to force a Keota timeout at 14-5.

'We were very effective,” Heath said. 'It helped that we were ready to play.”

Lindsey Imhoff had the last two offensive points for Keota, but aces from Emma Nye and Aliyah Christensen helped the Tigers close out the first set at 25-9.

Kills from Jaime Schulte and Makenzie Jackson helped Keota maintain a tie through 4-4 in the second set, but a Hahn timeout at 12-6 couldn't stop the serve of Hartrick, who served out the second set with help from kills by Alexa Wenger for a 25-6 win.

'It helps that she's left-handed and puts a lot of spin on the ball,” Heath said of Hartrick. 'Her serve can be a tough one to pass. We do work on our serving a lot. Serving is a huge part of the game.”

Kills by Swanson helped Keota to a 7-6 deficit in the third set, but a kill from Sofie Reighard for a 10-6 lead sparked a Hahn timeout.

'The difference for us in the third set was attitude,” Hahn said. 'We had to get over the fact that it was our mistakes that were getting us down. When they changed their attitude is when they thought that they could control the game if we just do our part. When everybody works together as a team things work correctly for us.”

The Eagles stayed within striking distance at 13-9 but Hartrick got behind the service line for a 22-11 lead and a kill from Pry finished it at 25-12.

'I thought we had sparks of playing well together but we just could not get that fire lit from everybody,” Hahn said. 'Our communication and following through on every play is what got to us.

'New London is good. They follow it to the line every time. They are talking every time. They are strong at the net.”

'I thought we were effective in all parts of the game,” Heath said.