Hidden Aces

Comets keep perfect conference record intact

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

CHARLES CITY — Opportunity doesn’t come around too often, especially for Charles City senior Shantel VanHauen.

Though she has played volleyball since the fourth grade, this is VanHauen’s first year on the Comets’ varsity squad. Coming to a team already loaded with returning talent, VanHauen doesn’t get much playing time.

“But I’m always ready to go whenever they need me,” VanHauen said.

Midway through the second set against visiting Waukon on Tuesday, VanHauen came off the bench and served up a string of 10 points including four aces to cap a 25-7 set victory, which gave Charles City a 2-0 match lead at the time.

“I was excited to get a chance to play,” said VanHauen, who also had a couple of service points in the Comets’ subsequent 25-14 win in the third set to close the match. “I played in the junior varsity match, so I was already fired up.”

The victory improved Charles City’s overall record to 23-4 and Northeast Iowa Conference record to 5-0.

The Comets have one more conference match at New Hampton next Tuesday. A win over the Chickasaws would cap an undefeated conference record and outright championship.

“We know Waverly-Shell Rock has at least one loss,” Charles City head coach Sue Hoeffer said in reference to the Comets beating the Go-Hawks last week in a hard-fought five-set match. “But we don’t want to share it with anybody.”

The Indians (7-15, 1-4) took a 4-3 lead in the first set before Charles City junior Tayler Schmidt finished a long volley with a resounding kill putting the Comets up 6-4. An ace by Sadie Ruzicka extended the lead to 15-8 before a series of Waukon service errors gave the Comets a 19-10 lead.

A kill by Regan Wasson drew the Indians a little closer (20-15), but a Sydney Loeckle to Jodie Sindlinger kill capped a 5-1 run to finish the set.

In the third set, consecutive kills by Katie Foster put the Comets up 17-7 before kills by Martin and Schmidt for the final two points finished the match.

“Last week there was a lot more energy in the building,” Hoeffer said of the raucous homecoming week crowd that attended the W-SR match — though the student section wasn’t dressed in togas like last week, they all wore pink as did the Comet players in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Week.

“But tonight we brought our own energy.”

Next up for Charles City is a tournament at Hampton-Dumont on Saturday.