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Fourth-rated Triton volleyball squad advances to regional championship round

Photo by Paul DeCoursey: Kealey Anderson helped lead Iowa Central to a regional win in volleyball on Sunday inside Hodges Fieldhouse.

The fourth-ranked Iowa Central volleyball team took care of business here Sunday afternoon, giving them a shot at punching a ticket to nationals.

The Tritons swept Ellsworth in a Region XI-A Tournament semifinal by scores of 25-11, 25-12 and 25-15.

Next up for Iowa Central (18-3 overall) will be a meeting with No. 9 Hawkeye (16-5) back here inside Hodges Fieldhouse on Tuesday night. With a win, the Tritons will secure the automatic bid to the NJCAA Div. II Championships.

“I like our focus,” Iowa Central head coach Sara Horn said. “We were really clean and just had a good mindset coming in. We started talking about this a couple weeks ago and have been working on some different goals during practice.”

Kealey Anderson led the way with 17 kills and eight digs while Katilyn Steffes added 12 kills and 11 digs. Alesha Johnson picked up 34 assists and had 13 digs.

Anderson had eight kills in the first set and added six more in the second to help her team take command against the Panthers (6-15).

Iowa Central led 18-7 early in the first before scoring five consecutive to end the match. They had three blocks and two aces in the set, following that up with five blocks in the second.

A 6-0 run that took the score from 10-5 to 17-6 in the third wiped away any momentum for Ellsworth.

“We wanted to make sure we weren’t peaking too early,” Horn said. “I feel like we looked efficient. We just kept doing some of the same drills we do all year during practice to see where we are at.”

Angel Baylark finished with five kills and five blocks, Haley Alharithy had four kills and five blocks, and Baylyn Johnson 11 digs.

The Tritons will now get the opportunity to secure a spot in the national tournament at home where they have gone 11-1 this year and 34-4 since the 2018 season.

Hawkeye advanced with a four-set win over North Iowa Area. The Tritons earned two wins during the regular season over the RedTails.

“We’re familiar with them having played twice this year,” Horn said. “We know they have good players. I like that we’ll be playing on a Tuesday as we’ve done that quite a bit this season and have a good routine set.”

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