Comets defeat Pointers 3-1, advance to VB regional final

During their Class 4A-Region 6 semifinal volleyball match against Center Point-Urbana, the Charles City Comets took plenty of dives.

Except they had no intention to lose on purpose.

Rather, they played with purpose in arguably their best effort of the season while bouncing back from a first set loss (23-25) to win the next three (25-22, 25-17, 25-21) in advancing to the regional final with a State Championships berth on the line.

The Comets frustrated the favored Stormin’ Pointers with their all-out dives and scrambling hustle on the floor while thwarting repeated kill attempts on way to winning extended volleys.

You got a good idea that the Comets came to play during the first point of the match. The volley lasted for nearly a minute — which is about the equivalent of a 30-pitch at-bat in baseball and softball — before Charles City seized the first lead of the night.

CPU eventually took the first set, but as the match progressed you got the feeling that the Pointers were getting worn down as nothing seemed to ever hit the floor on the Comets’ side of the net.

Though keeping the ball alive was a team effort for the Comets, junior libero Toni Maloy should be sited as having one of her best “digging” performances during her varsity career.

In the second set, a kill by Kaylee Anderson put the Comets up 3-1 before subsequent kills by Rachel Chambers extended the lead to 5-1.

An ace by Ella Casey gave CPU a 11-10 lead, but a kill by Danielle Stock put the Comets up 15-13 on way to evening the match.

Aces by Sarah Mitchell helped put the Comets up 8-5 in the third set, and then some more aces by Mitchell helped extend the lead to 22-13.

A kill by Jennifer Martin helped the Comets go up 7-3 in the fourth set.

The Pointers rallied to go up 13-12, but Charles City finished strong as Mitchell assisted Stock for a 24-20 Comet lead before Martin set up Chambers for the match-winning point.

The Comets will face bracket top seed West Delaware in Manchester at 7 p.m. Nov. 4 (next Monday). The No. 5-ranked Hawks (38-5) defeated Decorah 3-0 on Tuesday.

Like the Pointers, West Delaware received a bye in the bracket.

Charles City improved to 19-25 for the season, though the record may be a little deceiving. Early in the season, the Comets picked up losses in bunches while facing topnotch competition in tournaments.