Comets defeat North Tama, Janesville in triangular to improve to 20-6 for the season

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

CHARLES CITY — While defeating North Tama and Janesville during Monday’s triangular meet at Comet Gym, Charles City won the final two home matches of the regular season while reaching 20 victories for the year (20-6) going into this weekend’s Northeast Iowa Conference Volleyball Tournament at Crestwood.

The Comets had already claimed the final NEIC regular-season title last week with a home win over Decorah to cap a perfect league record (4-0). The winner of the forthcoming five-team tournament will also be the last NEIC Tournament champion as the more-than-century-old conference is due to disband after the school/sport calendar year.

The Comets defeated North Tama in straight sets (25-20, 25-20), but needed a third set to finally dispatch of the Wildcats (25-16, 21-25, 15-10).

A kill by Comet senior Mya Rimrod after a long back-and-forth volley put CC up 22-16 in the first set against Janesville before a blocking kill by senior Jadyn Van Horn increased the lead to seven ahead of a set-winning kill by freshman Addison Ellis.

An ace by Wildcat junior Addy Oldenburger gave Janesville an 8-7 lead in the second set before a hitting kill by sophomore outside hitter Hayden Anderson helped extend the lead to five (12-7).

A series of service errors hampered Comet efforts to pull much closer as Janesville evened the match and forced a third set.

An ace by Gracie Bioes and a blocking kill by Zoey Barnes helped the Wildcats get off to a 4-1 lead in the third set.

A kill by Van Horn gave the Comets an 11-9 lead before another kill by Van Horn, with Parrott assisting, brought things to match point (14-10). An unforced error by the Wildcats ended it.

* The Comets went 2-1 during an invitational hosted by Hampton-Dumont-CAL on Saturday, defeating Independence in three sets (23-21, 18-21, 15-12) and HDC in two sets (21-17); and losing to Kuemper Catholic in three (21-11, 16-21, 15-7).

In the win against Independence, Comet junior Sofia Parrott had 22 assists, senior Anya Ruzicka had 14 digs; and senior Jadyn Van Horn and freshman Avery Low each had three blocks.

In the win against HDC, sophomore Miyah Stevenson and junior Addyson Vance had four and three service aces, respectively.

In the loss against Kuemper Catholic, Comet senior Mya Rimrod and Vance each had a pair of service aces.