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Tigers take care of Grand View JV

By Ross Thede 5 min read

A brief reprieve from Iowa Community College Athletic Conference play was exactly what the Tigers needed, and they took advantage of it.

The Marshalltown Community College volleyball team improved to 4-3 at home with a 3-1 win over the Grand View University's varsity reserve unit, prevailing 25-19, 24-26, 25-23, 25-11 on Monday night at the Student Activity Center.

It ended a two-match losing streak in league play and got the Tigers (8-7) back above .500 after a pair of losses to nationally ranked conference opponents.

The best part about it, according to head coach Carlee Flack, was the opportunity to work on the things the team has been working so hard on in practice and putting them on the court in a competitive match.

"We got some hitters involved," said Flack. "We got our middles going and that was a huge thing. We got Stella going and she's gonna help us offensively as we keep going, so it's good to see her still hitting consistently."

Freshman middle hitter Stella Remer shared team-high scoring honors for MCC with a career-high 16 kills on just 26 swings. With only one attack error, Remer hit a season-best .577 attack efficiency, even contributing a couple kills from the outside when the rotation was right.

"We've been working on it in practice a lot, so that helps," Remer said of her timing with setter Isabelle Rawlins. "It was definitely better than it has been, yeah."

Rawlins finished with 42 assists on the night as a balanced but potent Tiger attack turned out to be too much for the Grand View JV. MCC sophomore Morghan Harvey shared team-high honors with 16 kills, while Lillian Mason and Amira Cowell came away with seven kills apiece.

Rawlins and middle hitter Addie Ratcliff added two kills each and the Tigers overcame a couple slow starts to finally finish off the Vikings in four.

The Tigers hit .268 as a team by cutting down on swinging errors and using the opponent's block to score points.

"I think the hardest part is when we come out and we always have to play from behind," Flack said. "We're really talking about coming out ahead, taking the lead, and just maintaining that the whole game. It takes more energy on our half to play from behind."

MCC scored the first six points of the night before falling into a back-and-forth battle with Grand View in the opening set. The Vikings never led but fought back to force ties at 10-all, 16-all and 17-all.

It was 19-18 MCC when the Tigers finally put their guests away, sparked by a service ace from Keeley Clarke. Grand View countered with a point before Marshalltown rattled off the last four, getting a pair of kills from Harvey along the way.

Grand View led by as many as four during the second set, 17-13, before a 6-0 surge served up by Cowell carried the Tigers back in front, 21-18. MCC was within 23-21 of taking a 2-0 lead, but the Vikings scored five of the last six points to steal the second set.

Neither team scored more than three points consecutively during the third set -- the last of which put Grand View on top 22-21. A kill for Remer stunted the surge, and Cowell came through on a right-side attack to take a 23-22 lead.

Grand View countered to tie the score again, but consecutive kills by Remer ended the third set in MCC's favor.

The fourth set was all Tigers, starting with a 7-1 run to open the game. The lopsided contest got to 17-4, and eventually a 6-1 run powered by Harvey and Cowell came through to end the set and the match.

"In practice we've been working on running some different plays, especially when it's a free ball, so I think they did a good job implementing some of those sets during this match," Flack said. "This was a good chance for us to put that into play and see how they're connecting on those sets."

The Tigers also finished with six block assists on the night, which is no large sum, but better than some nights at the net for the shorter-than-their-opponent MCC squad.

"That's something we've been working on, putting up a block," Flack said. "Whether it's a block back on their side or just giving our defense a little bit more time to play the ball, those touches are nice and we're making sure our defense is playing off the block, too."

Freshman libero Lesly Yismel Valentin Marte amassed 21 digs to lead the team, Clarke had 11, and the Tigers proved too stingy for the Vikings to overcome.

Grand View was led by Sophia Keys with 11 kills, while Delaney Roberts and Tessa de Vries had seven kills apiece. Roberts also led the Vikings with two blocks, while Taylor Heath served up four aces.

Marshalltown dips back into ICCAC play on Wednesday with a trip to Sioux City for a 6 p.m. contest with Western Iowa Tech, and the Tigers to go Moline, Ill., on Saturday for the Black Hawk College Tri-Match including Bryant & Stratton College.

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