Warriors stay red-hot

ELDON - There aren't many times hotter in Class 1A than the WACO Warriors. WACO flexed its muscle on Thursday night in a Southeast Iowa Super Conference South Division game against Cardinal, winning their ninth-straight game with a sweep, taking sets 25-9, 25-9 and 25-11.

The Warriors jumped on the Comets early, utilizing the swinging arm of senior hitter Morgan Graber, who caught fire early and never cooled off. Graber had five kills in the first 11 points of the game, helping WACO race out to a 9-2 lead.

WACO flirted with a double-digit lead at 12-3 but the Comets hit back with back-to-back kills from Kiya Chapin and Emma Becker to cut it to 12-5. WACO exploded for the next 11 points of the set and capitalized on four service aces to take the opener 25-9.

Another fast start to the second set had WACO up double digits early. An ace by Lindsey Roth made it 12-2 and the Warriors never looked back. Molly McLaughlin had six kills in the set and the Warriors repeated the first with a 25-9 win.

Cardinal held a short-lived lead in the third set, thanks in part to a kill by Becker that gace the Comets a 2-1 advantage. Cardinal would answer that with a 15-2 run, however, and cruise to the finish line.

'I thought the serving was just tremendous,” said WACO head coach Jay Coble. 'And I thought we kind of set the tone with our blocking early on.”

Graber ended the night with 10 kills and McLaughlin had nine to lead the Warriors. Coble ended the night with 26 assists and five aces.

It was a much less busy night for libero Aubri Garnsey, who shared the digs lead with McLaughlin with seven, two nights after reaching 1,000 digs in a win against West Burlington, one that avenged WACO's only loss of the season thus far.

'We have confidence, but we're going to stay humble,” Garnsey said. 'Any team can show up with their ‘A' game at any time. We're kind of on a rise right now and we don't want to get knocked down, so we just want to stay humble and continue on.”

Cardinal was paced by Becker, who finished the night with five kills. Chapin had four kills. Riley Bears dished out three assists, and Elizabeth Lett led the team with nine digs.

'There's no game off in the South,” said Comet head coach Katie Orwig. 'Every team is tough. You have to show up, and tonight we just didn't show up. Knowing the conference we're in, we can't take days off.”

Cardinal is now 2-4 and will play at West Burlington on Tuesday.

WACO will put its 10-1 record against Central Lee, and will be also riding an eight-game winning streak. Not only has WACO not lost a game since falling to West Burlington in their home tournament, but they've lost just one set, going 18-1 in sets over that time.

'I think losing to West Burlington in our tournament was the best thing that could've happened to us,” Coach Coble said. 'We went back and looked at tape, and we were not pleased with that performance. We had to learn from that and get better from that.”