Comets second to Wildcats at Hampton-Dumont Volleyball Invitational
No … recently reinstated New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady did not attend this past weekend’s Hampton-Dumont Invitational where he could have deflated some of the volleyballs. Yet the ball in play here does look like it needs some air due to the heavy-handed hit from Charles City senior Katie Foster during the Comets’ semifinal win over Independence.
Staff Report
HAMPTON — The Charles City Comets will no longer have to face the Janesville Wildcats for the rest of the volleyball season.
But they probably would like to.
A week after the Class 1A top-ranked Wildcats defeated the Comets for their lone loss while hosting the Charles City Volleyball Tournament, the two teams met again for the third time this season in the championship match of the Hampton-Dumont Invitational held Saturday.
With the Comets winning the first meeting during a tournament in Cedar Falls, this would prove to be the rubber match.
In the first set, the Wildcats jumped out to an 8-1 lead before the Comets went on a 7-1 run to pull within one (9-8). But a hitting kill by Janesville sophomore Bree Thompson gave the Wildcats some distance (24-18) before finally putting the first set away by a score of 25-21.
In the second set, Katie Foster’s kill put Charles City up 8-6 before a three-point killing spree by Tayler Schmidt helped keep the Comets in front, 14-12.
A kill by Thompson tied the score at 16 before consecutive kills by Gillian Gergen gave Janesville a 20-19 lead.
Then came a sequence that indicated the Wildcats were not going to be denied. Charles City was pounding Janesville with a series of heavy-handed hits. The Wildcats managed to get tips at the net before scrambling to keep the ball in play. They were clearly on the defensive just to get the ball over the net and were unable to respond with any attacking hits of their own.
But the Wildcats kept the extended volley alive and eventually got the point when the Comets made a hitting error.
That fired up the team and its sparse group of supporters, but the Comets came back to take a 24-22 lead on a Sydney Loeckle to Foster kill before winning the set (25-22) on a disputed net violation.
In the deciding set, the Wildcats took a 6-2 lead before a blocking kill by Charles City sophomore Jodie Sindlinger drew the Comets within one (7-6).
But in a game up to 15, a series of unforced errors doomed the Comets as they lost 15-8.
Foster led the Comets in kills (14), Loeckle had 28 assists, and Schmidt and Sadie Ruzicka had 12 and 10 digs, respectively, for Charles City (28-4).
The Comets advanced to the championship match with straight-set wins over Hampton-Dumont (21-11, 21-10), Roland-Story (25-15, 25-20) and Independence (25-22, 25-17).
Charles City will be back in action tonight with an away match against New Hampton — a win over the Chickasaws would seal an outright Northeast Iowa Conference regular-season championship.
The Comets will host the NEIC Tournament on Saturday.
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