×

Home again

—Photo by Paul DeCoursey The top-ranked iowa central volleyball team competes against Iowa Lakes inside Hodges Fieldhouse. The Tritons won in straight sets.

The top-ranked Iowa Central volleyball team had no trouble sweeping past Iowa Lakes here Wednesday night inside Hodges Fieldhouse.

Scores were 25-16, 25-13 and 25-8.

After playing seven consecutive matches away from home, the Tritons (21-0 overall, 4-0 in ICCAC) quickly gave their fans something to cheer about.

“The girls were excited to be back here,” Iowa Central head coach Sara Horn said. “We saw Iowa Lakes this past weekend and knew they were improved from a year ago. The girls respected them coming in and I think that was a big reason for our success on the court.”

Katilyn Steffes had 14 kills, Brooke Dobson added eight and both Angel Baylark and Jori Hajek had seven. Alesha Johnson recorded 35 assists and the Tritons had eight serving aces on the night led by five from Bria Sandifer.

Hajek also had 22 digs with Algona graduate Baylyn Johnson chipping in 15 and Sandifer 10. Bailey Dugan, Steffes and Alesha Johnson each had seven digs and Baylark recorded five blocks assists.

“We set some team goals coming into this week outside of just winning the match,” Horn said. “I think that really helped us focus in on what we want to accomplish. We had a really clean match and I thought the girls we were able to get in and play like Bria, Bailey and Jaiden (Zeis) gave us great efforts.

“We play a nice junior varsity schedule so we don’t feel pressured to play anybody, but it’s always great to get them out there and see what they can do.”

Haley Alharithy added four kills and a pair of block assists with Zeis and Alesha Johnson picking up a kill each. Steffes had a solo block and three block assists, Alesha Johnson had three block assists and Dobson had two block assists.

For Iowa Lakes (3-17, 1-3), Jasmine Shriver had five kills and both Rachel Breck and Jaden Gipfert had four.

The Tritons have now won 43 of their last 47 matches played inside Hodges Fieldhouse and are 37-4 since 2018 in the conference.

Next up for Iowa Central will be the North Iowa Area Tournament this Friday night in Mason City against Grand View JV at 6 p.m. and the host Trojans at 8 p.m.

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *

Starting at $4.62/week.

Subscribe Today