New Hampton earns trip to volleyball regional final
It wasn't always pretty, but New Hampton volleyball coach Jess Geerts didn't care. All that mattered to her was the Chickasaws won Tuesday night and will now play for a trip to the Class 3A state tournament.
The Chickasaws' 25-14, 25-19, 21-25, 25-14 victory over Oelwein improved New Hampton to 29-9 and set up a date Monday night with third-ranked Waterloo Columbus, which beat West Delaware 3-1. The regional championship match will begin at 7 p.m. and be played in Oelwein.
"Winning is the goal," Geerts said, "and would we like that third set back? Sure we would, but all that matters to me right now is we're moving forward. We'll work on the things we need to, but I think our girls realized that when we play with tempo - which we did in the fourth set - we're an awfully good volleyball team."
New Hampton once again displayed a balanced hitting attack as Savannah Anderson had 17 kills and Rachel Rinken added 16. Lauren Frerichs finished with 46 assists while Anderson had 25 digs and Bailey Knowlton and Kaelyn Ambrose added 24 and 17, respectively. Maddi Moorman provided three blocks, and Knowlton finished 21-for-21 serving while Anderson was 16-for-16 with a pair of aces.
— For more on this story, see the Oct. 27 Tribune