Central rallies for volleyball tourney split
Central Dutch Athletics
PELLA—A spirited comeback carried the Central College volleyball team to a home-court split of its four matches in the Iowa Conference-Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Crossover Saturday.
The Dutch (8-9) were outdueled by Wisconsin Lutheran earlier Saturday, 25-21, 25-21, 15-25, 28-26 but closed with a 25-16, 22-25, 14-25, 27-25, 15-7 triumph over Milwaukee School of Engineering for a 2-2 mark in the two-day, eight-team event at P.H. Kuyper Gymnasium.
The win over MSOE was a welcome turnaround from a disappointing five-set defeat against Lakeland (Wis.) Friday.
“We followed our ABCs,” coach Jeanne Czipri said. “We stayed vocal, we focused on our first contact and we stayed present. It was cool to see some grit. The players just found a way to get the point and compete.”
Central gained some spark from a lineup switch as Czipri inserted freshman outside hitter/middle hitter Kayleigh Fite (Florissant, Mo., Trinity Catholic HS) as libero for the first time.
“There was a lot of selflessness in taking on a new role,” Czipri said.
Fite responded with 13 digs against Wisconsin Lutheran and 20 against MSOE.
Outside hitter Erin Dilger (sophomore, Tinley Park, Ill., Lincoln-Way North HS) had a team-high 13 kills to lead a balanced attack against MSOE while outside hitter Mollie Mason (senior, Iowa City, West HS) had 12 kills with 23 digs, middle hitter Hana Edgerton (sophomore, Grundy Center) had 11 kills and outside hitter Kylie Gerstein (senior, Iowa Falls, Iowa Falls-Alden HS) had 10. Setter Regan Nelson (senior, Pella) had 33 assists with 16 digs and Chapel Carter (junior, Coronado Springs, Colo.) had 25 with 17 digs.
Middle hitter Jenna Dille (senior, Carlisle) had 16 kills against Wisconsin Lutheran. Carter had 19 assists.
Some adjustments in Kuyper Gymnasium over the summer allowed the Dutch to host a tourney for the first time in several years.
“We love playing at home,” Czipri said. “We’ve got great facilities and it was great to have the opportunity to play four matches in front of our home crowd.”
Czipri is seeing progress in her club.
“We’re better than we were at the start of the year,” she said. “We do take some steps back at times. We need to keep focusing on getting one percent better each time consistently, not ever going backwards.”
The Dutch return to conference action with a big trip to Dubuque looming as Central takes on Loras Friday and Dubuque Saturday in a pair of 7:30 p.m. league matches.
“We’ve got some work to do this week,” Czipri said.
