Chickasaws defeat Comets in 5 sets in NEIC volleyball match

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

CHARLES CITY — The knuckleball looks so easy to hit … when you watch baseball on TV.

A knuckleball serve looks so easy to bump/pass … when you watch volleyball from the stands.

The Northeast Iowa Conference match between New Hampton and hosting Charles City on Tuesday offered a continuous volley of dueling serves that seemed to have schizophrenic minds of their own in the way they dipped, rose and danced side-to-side while forcing a series of “unforced errors” on both sides of the net.

Again, those watching the game from either side of the Comet Gym bleachers were likely incredulous whenever their team became an ace victim and/or couldn’t set up a side-out killing opportunity due to being addled by such quark-like movement. But tracking these serves from a vantage from behind one of the service lines yields a better perspective of the degree of difficulty.

Charles City sophomore Keely Anderegg, who led the Comets in aces last season, dealt the Chickasaws eight of them on Tuesday while going 33 of 33 at the service line. After the Chickasaws evened the match at a set apiece, Anderegg helped her team win the third set and take an early lead in the fourth set with service-point streaks.

But New Hampton eventually won the fourth set to even the match before cruising in the abbreviated tiebreaker set for the 3-2 match victory (16-25, 25-17, 19-25, 25-17, 15-5).

New Hampton senior Molly Wegner also served up some wicked movement with three service aces. Wegner also had 19 assists, and senior Hailee Pesek had 13 kills and 14 digs for the Chickasaws.

Senior Keely Collins had 10 kills and four blocks; senior Emma Miller had nine kills and two aces; junior Mya Rimrod had 10 digs; and sophomore Sofia Parrott was credited with a match-high 25 digs for the Comets.

The Class 3A No. 14-ranked Chickasaw had defeated the Class 4A No. 15-ranked Comets earlier this season (2-0) in an abbreviated match as part of a multi-team tournament hosted by New Hampton.

New Hampton improved to 12-1 while Charles City fell to 9-3. The teams are due to face each other during the NEIC Tournament (Oct. 12 at New Hampton; Oct. 14 at Charles City).

Both teams will likely finish the regular season amid the top half of the regular-season conference standings.