Central drops league volleyball opener
Central College
STORM LAKE— Central College couldn’t match Buena Vista’s offensive efficiency and dropped its Iowa Conference volleyball opener on the road Thursday, 25-19, 25-20, 25-18.
Buena Vista (9-7 overall, 1-0 conference) hit a solid .304 for the night to Central’s .167 and got 46 of its 47 kills from four players. Maggie Bardole had 14 kills while hitting a red-hot .414 and middle hitter Celie Kohls was even more efficient with 10 kills while hitting .500.
Central (9-5) got seven kills and a .385 percentage from middle hitter Hannah Welter (senior, Lincoln, Neb., Southwest HS) while right-side hitter Emily Stoakes (junior, Gladbrook, Gladbrook-Reinbeck HS) had six kills and outside hitter Shantell Gish (senior, Cedar Rapids, Prairie HS) had five. Defensive specialist Tori Zempel (junior, La Porte City, Union HS) had 12 digs and setter Claire Stewart (senior, Colorado Springs, Colo., Classical Academy) had 14 assists.
Coach Kent Clayberg had said earlier that Buena Vista’s squad was one of its best ever and knew that winning at Storm Lake would be a challenge.
“There’s the way you hope things will go, the way you believe things will go and the way you fear they might go,” he said. “And they went the way we were afraid they could. We played without presence. We were timid.”
It was Buena Vista’s first victory ever over the Dutch, who had taken 46 straight matches in the series that began in 1979.
But Clayberg is confident that better days are ahead for the Dutch.
“We had moments when we were very good, but those moments were too few and far between,” Clayberg said. “But I do believe we have it in us to be something more than what we showed tonight. I believe that with all my heart.
“We’ll go looking for it tomorrow in practice, and I think we’ll find it.”
Central, which has made just one home appearance in the season’s first 14 matches, is off this weekend, then home for a match before returning to the road. The Dutch play host to Dubuque Tuesday in a 7:30 p.m. match at P.H. Kuyper Gymnasium. The Spartans are 4-10 overall and 0-1 in league play.
