Leaps And Bounds: Eagles Volleyball Finishes Weekend With Composure

By Jonathan Crossman

ANKENY, Iowa – The Lady Eagles continued their winning ways in the Spikefest tournament, getting another 3-0 win against Oak Hills Christian College in the morning. Unfortunately, they hit a wall against the seasoned Maranatha Baptist University team, falling in all three sets in the last game of the tournament. Despite the loss to Maranatha's robust offense, there were lots of outcomes from the tournament weekend, with the Eagles coming out of it with a winning record and some early playing experience for the freshmen players. With the tournament now behind them, the Eagles are prepared to boldly confront their first regular-season game.

The first game against Oak Hills was business as usual for the Eagles, easily winning all 3 sets (25-16, 25-20, 25-18) behind the reinforcement of loyal fans and family members that came to root on the home team. In the afternoon game, the girls started strong against Maranatha, putting up some good early serves before their defense started to falter and a series of technique mishaps lead to a loss (13-25, 10-25,14-25). Ever the fighters that they are, the Eagles remain persistent to stay on track mentally, focusing on the exceptional outcomes of the weekend tournament.

A few performances that stood out from the weekend were Alicia Smith's brilliant on-court leadership and high percentage of kills, finishing with 10 kills, 'Big Rach' Rachel Kleczka's impressive blocks, supporting the team with 10 personal blocks, and Sarah Iler's gritty defense in the back, assisting the team with a heap of digs and bumps to the front row. The Eagles as a whole played smart volleyball throughout the entire tournament, with only a few technical blunders in the final game, an easy fix for the Eagles in upcoming practices.

The Eagles (2-1) hit the court again on September 12^th at Trinity Bible College, starting at 7 p.m.