Comets take ‘Last Dance’ NEIC volleyball league title with 3-1 win over Vikings

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

CHARLES CITY — It’s not going to be around much longer, so you might as well win as many Northeast Iowa Conference league titles as you can.

The Charles City Comets did that on the volleyball side when they defeated Decorah, 3 sets to 1 (25-21, 17-25, 25-22, 25-20) on Tuesday to improve to 16-5 overall while capping their perfect NEIC record at 4-0.

Had the Vikings (15-9, 2-2) prevailed at Comet Gym, three in the count-them-on-one-hand five-team league would have had 3-1 league records, including New Hampton, which had its run of NEIC regular-season titles stopped at three.

The Comets had lost to both the Vikings and NH Chickasaws in abbreviated best-of-three-set matches in triangular and quadrangular play, respectively, but avenged both those losses in NEIC-sanctioned play.

There is still more hardware to seize from the NEIC with the forthcoming league tournament, Oct. 19 at Crestwood. After the conclusion of the current school/sport calendar year, the NEIC will disband.

After a pair of hitting kills by Mya Rimrod broke a 13-13 tie in the first set before Brooklyn Molitor’s ace closed it, the Vikings took control of the second set with Leah Holland’s blocking kill putting them up 18-14 on way to winning the set convincingly.

Two blocking kills by Jadyn Van Horn gave the Comets a 18-13 lead in the third set, but a kill by Decorah junior McKinley Massman tied the set at 22-22.

Charles City junior Evelyn Mayhew was able to keep in play a ball that rolled on top of the net for about five or six feet, passing it to fellow junior Sofia Parrott, who set freshman Addison Ellis for the set-winning kill.

A pair of Parrott-to-Ellis kills put the Comets at match-point (24-16) before the Vikings scored 4 straight only to be vanquished by Parrott’s “set” that didn’t go to any of her hitters but was deftly placed on an open spot on the Vikings’ side of the floor.

In addition to that kill, Parrott was credited with 49 assists while helping Rimrod (18 kills), Ellis (14) and Van Horn (13) in reaching double-figure kill totals.

Mayhew had three blocking kills, and Anya Ruzicka had 28 digs for the Comets, who will travel to Hampton-Dumont for a volleyball tournament this Saturday.

Molitor, Rimrod, Ruzicka, Van Horn and fellow seniors Emerson Bohlen and Tayleigh Lantz were honored before the match during the Comets “Senior Night”.