The 12th ranked South Hamilton volleyball team kept their record unblemished last week as they posted wins ovr C-M-B and Woodward-Granger in Heart of Iowa Conference play.   They also won the Ballard (Huxley) tournament to move their record to 15-0 this season....

     Hawks stop C-M-B   ---   South High traveled to C-M-B on Tuesday, September 14 and stopped the Raiders in four games.   The scores were  25-20, 25-23, 26-28 and 25-16.   On the bright side fir SH was the fact that they won despite not playing their best game.    They were led by Becca Swalla who had 10 kills, seven total blocks and 27 digs.  Laura Read added eight kills, two aces, 15 assists and seven digs.

     Morgan Wright contributed four kills and two solo blocks.   Alyssa Wirtz finished with three aces, six kills and 12 digs.   Kelsey Hake finished with 13 kills, one ace and 10 digs.

     Hawks knock off Hawks   ---    SH hosted Woodward-Granger in a Heart of Iowa Conference match on Thursday night and took care of the visiting Hawks in three games.    The scores were 25-18, 25-17 and 25-15.    "The team served aggressively the entire match and did an excellent job of passing free balls,"  Jiore explained.   "We cut down on our errors, which helped lead us to victory."

     Senior Alyssa Wirtz led SH with four ace serves, nine digs and eight serve receptions.   Tarin Bell added 18 assists ad five digs to the South High cause.    Kelsey Hake finished with three ace serves, three kills and four digs.   Becca Swalla contributed nine kills, four total blocks and six digs.   Whitney Holt added three solo blocks and three kills to the Hawk victory....

     Ballard champs   ---   The Hawks traveled to Ballard on Saturday, September 17 and brought home their second team title in as many weeks.   SH knocked off Grandview Park Baptist, Colo-NESCO and Johnston in pool play before eliminating Bondurant-Farrar in the semi-finals.   They gaced Johnston again in the finals and beat the old HOIAC rival Dragons in two games to grab the team trophy.

     "We played outstanding team defense, also Brandi Easterday and Kelsey Hake led a great blocking effort throughout the day," coach Fiore said.   "Alyssa Wirtz's serving kept teams on their heels all day."

     Round 1   ---    South High faced highly regarded GVPB in the first round and took care of them in two games.   The scores were 21-15 and 21-17.   In the match against the Defenders, Wirtz led the offense with three ace serves.   Laura Read finished with one ace and 11 assists while Tarin Bell finished with 19 assists.   Kelsey Hake had seven kills and Becca Swalla finished with five.   Defensively Easterday tallied five blocks.   Hake and Swalla recorded nine digs each while Bell finished with eight.   Wirtz added siven digs to the cause.

     Round 2   ---    In round w, the Hawks took care of Heart of Iowa Conference foe Colo-NESCO in two games.   The scores were 21-3 and 21-14.   Against the Royals Jackie Smith led the offense with three ace serves.   Wirtz and Read finished with two ace serves each and Read also finished with 11 assists and three kills.   Bell added eight assists.   Morgan Wright and Swalla finished with two kills each.

     The defense was led by Easterday with four blocks.   Wright added three blocks while Swalla added four digs.   Janessa Hove tallied three digs as did Wirtz.

     Round 3   ---    South High faced Class 4A Johnston in the third round and the Dragons fell just like the rest of the teams.   This time the scores were 21-11, 22-24 and 15-13.   The offense was led by Kelsey Hake who had six ace serves and six kills.   Becca Swalla wasn't bad both as she hit all 10 of her serves and also had six kills.   Jackie Smith was also perfect serving as she was 10 out of 10.   Tarin Bell dished out 26 assists and Laura Read added 14.

     The defense was led by Easterday and Hake who had eight blocks each.   Morgan Wright finished with five blocking assists while Read had four total blocks.   Wirtz finished with six digs and Swalla dug out five balls.   Smith finished with 
 four digs to help gain the victory.

     Semi-finals   ---    The Hawks played fellow HOIAC member Bondurant-Farrar in the semi-finals and knocked off the Bluejays in two games.   The scores were 21-14 and 21-14.   Wirtz led the offense against the Bluejays as she had three aces.   Hake was perfect serving going 9-for-9.   Bell finished with 17 assists while Read added 11.

     The defense was led by Hake who had three blocks followed by Easterday with two.   Swalla also had two blocks and three digs.  Bell, Wirtz and Smith finished with two digs each.

     Finals   ---    In the finals, the Hawks squared off agains Johnston again and this time South High won the match in two games.   The scores were 21-8 and 21-12.    Leading the way on offense was Tarin Bell who nailed three aces, was 10-of-25 serving and dished out 13 assists.   Kelsey Hake added two aces and tallied four kills.   Laura Read finished with nine assists and two kills.   Becca Swalla was perfect serving and good on 9-of-10 attacks.   Jackie Smith finished with one ace.

     Defensively, Easterday finished with three blocks while Swalla, Wirtz and Hake had tow each.   Wirtz also finished with eight digs.   Bell, Swalla, Read and Smith added four digs each.
 

South Hamilton volleyball team won marathon matches against Bondurant-Farrar and Prairie City-Monroe last week to move within one game of state.   The victories set up a match with number one rated Grundy Center on Tuesday night in Iowa Falls to decide who would move on to the Class 2A State Tournament.

Marathon match one
     South High hoste Bondurant-Farrar on Tuesday, October 26 and won in five games to end the Bluejays season.   The scores were 19-25, 25-9, 25-10, 24-26 and 15-5.    "We struggled with hitting errors at time," head coach Kris Fiore said. 
"Bondurant played unbelievable defense."

     Alyssa Wirtz led the offense nailing 21-of-28 serves with five aces.   Tarin Bell also had a good night serving as she ws 21-of28 with four aces.   Laura Read finished the match nailing 18-of-24 serves with four aces.   Kelsey Hake tallied 17-of-19 serves with two aces.   Becca Swalla ended the match hitting 14-of-16 serves with one ace.   Swalla had a monster night at the net as she had 16 kills.   Kelsey Hake added 10 kills to the South High cause and Alyssa Wirtz finished with nine kills.   Brandi Easterday added five kills and Laura Read finished with four.

     Defensively, Hake finished with 22 digs followed by Wirtz with 17.   Jackie Smith ended the match with 15 digs while Swalla and Read collected nine digs each.    Brandi Easterday led the defense at the net with four blocks.   Morgan Wright finished with three blocks followed by Swalla, Rad, and Hake with two blocks apiece.    "Our defense also played very strong led by Jackie Smith and Kelsey Hake," stated Fiore.

Marathon - match two
     Two days after topping B-F the Hawks found themselves facing a resurgent PCM team and had to rally for a victory.   The Hawks came out of the locker room on fire and won the first game 25-16.   The Mustangs on the other hand rallied to take the next two games by scores of 25-19 and 25-19.     With their backs against the wall the Hawks took control in the fourth game and would not be stopped.   They held off the Mustangs for a 25-17 victory setting up a fifth game.

     South High stormed out to 3-0 lead in the fifth game only to have PCM tie it up 3-3.   The Hawks then opened up a 9-4 lead that wouldn't last.   The Mustangs rallied again to tie the score 10-10.   PCM then moved in front 13-11 and it looked as though the season was soon to be over for SH.   The Hawks would not be denied though.   A service error by PCM moved the score to 12-13 followed by an attack error that made the score 13-13 and gave the Hawks new life.   South High took advantage of that new life when Becca Swalla hammered a kill to put SH up 14-13.   Hake ended the match when she tipped a ball past the PCM defense that sent the student section scrambling onto the floor in a wild victory celebration.

     Swalla led the Hawk attach as she nailed 16 kills followed by Hake with 11.   Swalla and Hake were also perfect at the service line as Swalla nailed 13 serves and Hake connected on 21 with one ace.   Alyssa Wirtz finished 20-of-22 serving with four aces.   Jackie Smith nailed 16-of-16 serves while Laura Read was 14-of-16 with one ace and she also had 16 assists.   Tarin Bell finished 15-of-17 serving and had one ace to go along with 14 assists.

     The defense was led by Brandi Easterday with five blocks.   Smith had a great night on defense as she had 18 digs.   Hake added nine digs with Swalla finishing with eight.   Wirtz, Bell and Read had five digs apiece.    SH put their 26-0 record on the line against Grundy Center who was sporting a 39-1 record.   Stats weren't available at press time.