Comets hold all the aces in 3-1 volleyball win over Indians

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

CHARLES CITY — If they had been playing poker in an Old West roughneck saloon, the Charles City Comets would have been run out of town.

With there being only four aces to a deck of cards, the Comets definitely had more than their share up their sleeves while defeating visiting Waukon 3 sets to 1 during Tuesday’s Northeast Iowa Conference volleyball match.

While dispatching the Indians 25-15, 25-13, 20-25, 25-12, the Comets served up a season-high 13 aces with senior Brooklyn Molitor slapping in four (there’s one deck right there), senior Ruzicka slapping in three, and juniors Sofia Parrott, Mya Rimrod and Addyson Vance each dealing two.

The Comets also bumped/passed the ball well during the evening while “assisting” setter Parrott in recording 37 assists with Charles City attacking the net at near point blanc range during the majority of their third hits.

Rimrod and senior Jadyn Van Horn each attained double-figure killing totals with 11 and 10 respectively.

On the defensive side of the net, Van Horn and junior Evelyn Mayhew each had three blocks; and Ruzicka and sophomore Miyah Stevenson were credited with 13 and 10 digs respectively.

The Comets jumped out to a 17-6 lead in the first set when Parrott assisted a scoring kill by Rimrod. The Indians pulled a little closer at 22-15 before an ace by Vance, a well-placed “set” kill by Parrott and a set-winning kill by Van Horn put the Comets up 1-0.

Molitor’s ace gave Charles City a 3-0 lead in the second set before a pair of aces by Ruzicka helped the Comets to a 19-8 lead. A pair of Parrott-to-Rimrod kills helped cap the second set.

The Indians, who came to Comet Gym on the heels of a three-match winning streak, were finally able to punch back in the third set as a kill by senior Reese McCormick gave Waukon its first lead of the night (10-9). Another kill by McCormick and a service act by senior Olivia Dougherty extended the lead to 16-11.

The Comets were able to pull within one (19-18) with a kill by Stevenson, but an ace by Waukon senior Mari Delaney regained some distance (23-19) for the Indians, who went on to force a fourth set.

Not allowing Waukon to sustain a change in momentum, the Comets quickly took a 10-point lead in the fourth set (12-2) with an ace by Parrott and the Indians were unable to get the gap back to single digits from there.

With their seventh victory in a row, the Comets improved to 11-3 overall and 2-0 in the NEIC. They will be back in action this Saturday when they travel to Waterloo East for the Eileen Benninga Invitational where they are due to face Waterloo East, Waterloo West, Hudson and Marshalltown.

Waukon, who got 25 assists from senior libero Keeran Barr, fell to 8-4 and 0-1.