The Iowa Falls-Alden volleyball team had three different attackers deliver double digit kills to help propel the team to a 3-1 win over Clarion-Goldfield-Dows in their home and North Central Conference Opener on Thursday, as aired on 104.9 KLMJ. The Cadets won by set scores 25-18, 24-26, 25-19, 25-20.
In the first set, IFA led by as many as eight to close out the set win. In the second set, after a 6-6 tie, IFA built up a 21-12 advantage. CGD went on a 11-2 scoring run to tie the set at 23-23. After a 24-24 tie, the Cowgirls took the set in extras 26-24 to even the match at a set apiece. In the third set after a 10-10 tie, the Cadets went on a 13-4 run to go up 23-14 and took the set 25-19 to go up 2-1 in the match. In the fourth set after a competitive start, the Cadets led 14-8, the Cowgirls cut their deficit to one later in the set at 20-19. The Cadets scored five on the final six points to clinch the conference opener. Leah Allen had 20 kills, Carlea Dagel had 17 to lead the Cadets.
Allen on maintaining energy with help from the home crowd.
“I think overall this team is so positive and fun to play with. We know when we’re down how to find an open spot and get our momentum back up,” says Allen. “I love having that big crowd and that energy. Something that we are really working on this year is having energy because that’s how we succeed. Having them bringing up our energy is huge.”
Dagel highlights what helped the Cadets offense get rolling and her connection with setter Elody England.
“I think we got a lot of free balls and it was really easy to see the open spots. We talked about it way before the game happened. Putting it where the open spots was definitely helped,” says Dagel. “We both play club volleyball, so that’s definitely a good thing for us. We definitely do connect way better than we did last year. She’s improving. We work on that each day in practice, our connection with quicks and everything.”
England had 34 assists and added 13 kills for the Cadets.
CGD Head Coach Jessica Nail says limiting deficits is an area of needed progress.
“It was a tough one obviously, we got ourselves down in all four sets. We we’re able to come back in one of them but we can’t get ourselves down that far and expect to always come back,” says Nail. “We saw some good things but a lot of things to work on to. There are things we’ve been talking about since the beginning of the season, so we just want to start seeing those changes happen.”
Jacqueline Kirstein had eight kills and Blaire Askelsen had six kills to lead the Cowgirls.
Iowa Falls-Alden (2-2, 1-0 NCC) will play at BCLUW round robin tournament on Saturday. Clarion-Goldfield-Dows (2-4, 0-1 NCC) will play at Hampton-Dumont-CAL on Thursday, September 11.
