2010 Volleyball Season Gets Underway

NEW ERA IN ROLLING HILLS BEGINS TUESDAY

East Greene opens the 2010 volleyball season tonight in Rippey against Southeast Webster-Grand (Burnside). The Hawkettes are coming off a 14-7 season in 2009 that saw them finish fourth in the West Central Conference at 6-3. It was one of the best seasons in East Greene volleyball history, and came on the heels of a fourth-place conference finish (6-3) in 2008.

EG will be competing in the Rolling Hills Conference this year after 14 years in the 1A-2A West Central. EG’s first-ever RH competition will be next Tuesday’s volleyball conference opener against Orient-Macksburg in Rippey.

This weekend, EG travel to Coon Rapids to participate in a tournament hosted by Coon Rapids-Bayard, ranked No. 10 in the Class 1A preseason poll by the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union.

East Greene must replace four seniors off last year’s squad, including all-conference and all-district middle hitter Malarie Gilley; Heidi Kiner, second team all-conference; Bobbie Halterman, honorable mention; and Jessie Beaman. Gilley, 6-1, a dominant force at the net will be hard to replace. She was a two-time unanimous first-team all-league pick in addition to being all-state and all-conference in basketball the last two seasons.

Coach Carly Tiffany will be building around a nucleus of five returning seniors: Katlynn Gannon, Molly Neese, Tia Lowe, Jasmine Kinney and Britanee Heaning.

Gannon earned second team all-conference honors as a defensive specialist last year. She had 318 digs (5.4 per game), 10 assists, and was 65 of 69 serving (94%) with four aces. Neese, who garnered honorable mention merit, was 172 of 206 (84%) serving with 30 aces. At the net, she had 56 kills and nine blocks, and on defense she had 42 digs.

EG has been very solid in serving the last several seasons. Along with Gannon’s 94% clip, the Hawkettes will be looking to Lowe, who connected on 147 of 162 serves, a solid 91%, with 13 aces.

As the newcomer, EG will be the wildcard team in the Rolling Hills this year. The conference absorbed Glidden-Ralston last year, but the Wildcats weren’t much of a threat, finishing at 3-6 in the league and tied with Paton-Churdan for seventh. PC joined the Rolling Hills three seasons ago. EG now becomes the third team to leave the West Central, following PC and GR. EG’s moved to the Rolling Hills will be a reunion for the three schools, as they had been conference competitors since 1976, when they became charter members of the Central Valley Conference. All three then joined the Coon River Valley Conference in the late 1980s and then eventually the West Central in 1996.

Exira, last year’s champion with a perfect 9-0 mark, and Elk Horn-Kimballton (1-8) agreed last year to share all sports, so they will be a force to contend with this season. The EHK-Exira alliance took the league from 10 teams down to nine, which opened the door for EG’s membership. The league had also issued invitations to Coon Rapids-Bayard and Ar-We-Va to become the 10th team but both opted to stay in their respective leagues, the West Central and Western Valley South.

Exira won volleyball and basketball championships last year without EHK, which competed on its own, and then the combined EHK/Exira teams won league titles in girls track and softball, so Exira went through the year winning all four major girls’ conference crowns.

The combined EHK/Exira and Iowa Christian look to be the key contenders for the league crown, but CAM, Adair-Casey and Ankeny Christian will all be solid, along with East Greene. Glidden-Ralston had a young squad last year and can’t be taken too lightly. Orient-Macksburg will be rebuilding, and Paton-Churdan and Walnut should be improved.

Here’s a look at the Rolling Hills for 2010:

EHK/Exira: EHK was senior dominated last year with four senior starters on a team that finished just ninth in the league, beating only winless Walnut, and went 2-20 overall. But Danielle Stockwell is back from that team and her team-leading serving skills (196-202, 97%, 21 aces) will figure in nicely in the lineup the coaches will be creating for the combined EHKE team this fall. Just at East Greene lost its dominant force at the net in Gilley, Exira has graduated all-sport standout Hallie Christofferson. She was the lone unanimous first team all-conference pick last year in the conference. Ann Walker was also on the first team last year as a senior, so those two departures leave big holes to fill. But EHKE does return second-team honoree Anna Smith, and honorable-mention pick Erin Kliefoth. Both are seniors this year.

Those two along with Stockwell from the EHK side along with key reserve Maddy Peppers, who played a big role on Exira’s state championship basketball team, will serve as the core of this year’s team. EHKE will also look for significant contributions from seniors Chelsea Nelson and Courtney Peppers and junior Nora Walker from the Exira side and juniors Taylor Petersen and Cassidy Bissen and senior Lesie Waymire from last year’s EHK team.

Exira, 20-6 last year, is a tournament-tested team, having won it all in basketball and advancing to the regional semifinals in volleyball, falling to St. Albert’s (Council Bluffs), which then lost in the regional finals to Southern Cal, the team that ended East Greene’s season in the quarterfinal round.

Iowa Christian Academy: The Blazers will be looking to return to the top of the conference. ICA joined the Rolling Hills in 2002 and finished seventh the first two years, but has not finished lower than second but once since then. ICA won the league title (7-1) in 2007 and has finished as runner-up the last two seasons. The Blazers have improved their showing out of the league too. After going 11-11 in 2006—after four straight losing seasons—the teams has logged winning records of 17-9, 20-8 and 14-11 the last three seasons.

Returning to anchor this year’s squad is junior Karlie Schut. A first-team all-conference pick and one of just six underclassmen named to Class 1A West Central all-district team, Schut is one of four returning starters. She led the Blazer’s offensive attack last year with 198 kills in 465 attempts and 107 errors for a .196 per game efficiency mark and 3 kills per game. Schut had 50 blocks for the season and served 199 of 236 for 84% and 60 aces. Junior Erica Groen served at a 95% clip (223-234) with 30 aces. Groen earned honorable mention all-conference honors last season.

Ankeny Christian Academy: Senior Kaleigh Strong, also an all-district and first-team all conference pick, is back to anchor the Eagles, along with Natalie Heggen, an honorable mention pick last year as a junior. ACA had a very good year in boys athletics as its shared 8-man football team with ICA finished in second in District 6 and qualified for the playoffs, beating Melcher-Dallas in the substate before falling to Tri-County (Thornburgh) in the first round, and the ACA basketball team made it to the Class 1A State Tournament. The ACA girls will be trying to mirror the boys success and move up the ladder in volleyball, after finishing in a tie with CAM for fifth place (5-4) last year but going just 9-16 overall.

CAM: The Cougars have two keys players returning this year in seniors Angela Arp, first-team all conference libero, and Faith McCunn, a second-team all-league pick. CAM went 10-11 last year and was knocked out of the first round of the regional tournament by league rival Orient-Macksburg. CAM had a very good showing in the conference tournament last season, upsetting No. 3 seed Adair-Casey in the quarterfinal round and then upending Paton-Churdan in the semifinals to advance to the championship game against Exira. The Cougars fell again to the regular season champs, but showed they can play with anyone in the league.

Orient-Macksburg: The Bulldogs have big holes to fill as first- and second-team all-league picks Amy Waddington and Ashley West have graduated, leaving OM in a rebuilding stage for 2010. Last year the Bulldogs tied Adair-Casey for third (6-3) and won their opening round match in the conference tournament as the No. 4 seed over Ankeny Christian, but then ran into champion Exira in the semifinal round. OM beat CAM in the first round of the regional tournament but was eliminated in the quarterfinals by Stanton, which advanced to the regional final and lost to state qualifier Treynor.

Adair-Casey: AC’s season ended on a low note with a loss in its first match in the conference tourney as the No. 3 seed and a quick exit in the regionals with a loss to Exira. The Bombers had put together a 6-3 mark to finish in a tie for third in the conference with Orient-Macksburg. AC does return first-team all-conference pick Shy Terry, one of the four returning first-teamers. AC will look to build around Terry, a senior, in hopes of another upper division finish.

Glidden-Ralston: A senior dominated team in 2008 led the Wildcats to a 4-5 sixth-place finish in the West Central, while last year’s team struggled to finish 3-6 in the Rolling Hills and 5-14 overall. GR was very young last year so look for a more veteran team to be much more competitive this season. The Wildcats return juniors Jaycie David, a second-team all-conference pick last year, and Jordan Bock, honorable mention.

Paton-Churdan: PC had one of its best showings in several years, compiling a 10-18 overall mark and making the semifinal round of both the CRB and Rolling Hills Conference tourneys. PC was the surprise team at the conference event last year. PC tied for seventh in the league with GR at 3-6 but got the No. 7 seed. The Rockettes beat No. 10 Walnut in the opening round which advanced them to the quarterfinals to face No. 2 seed Iowa Christian. PC upset the Blazers to move onto the semifinal round. They were eliminated in the semifinal round by CAM and then fell in the consolation match to Orient-Macksburg, but the fourth-place finish and reaching double-digits in the win column should give the returning players a lot of confidence. PC loses its top three players from last year’s squad but does return senior playmaker Amy Gaines, who was an honorable mention pick last year. A number of younger players got some good experience last year and will be looked to step into key roles as starters this season.

Walnut: The Walnut girls athletic program has been in a rebuilding program the last few years after a couple of seasons where the school did not field a girls varsity basketball team. Last year the team went winless in volleyball and just 1-16 in basketball to finish in the league cellar in both sports, but in the spring, the Warriors finished seventh of eight teams in conference track and this past summer in softball they put together a 5-5 conference mark to finish in third place, improving upon a 2-8 mark from 2009. So, the Warriors are making progress. Back from last year’s squad are two honorable mention picks, senior Sam Jensen and junior Dakota Brockman.

East Greene: The Hawkettes are the mystery team of the league this year. Granted, they lost several key players off of last year’s team, but they have some solid veterans returning in Gannon, Neese and Lowe. EG most likely would have competed with Exira for last year’s title as the Hawkettes went 3-0 against Rolling Hills teams in non-conference competition. EG beat ICA, the league runner-up, and Paton-Churdan on its way to claiming the crown in the Coon Rapids-Bayard tournament along with a win over Elk Horn-Kimballton in the Walnut tourney, where the host team was winless.

EG has faced some very solid competition in the West Central the last several seasons. Under coach Carly Tiffany, the Hawkettes went from an “also-ran” to a contender in the West Central, which is pretty impressive as each year the West Central became a much more difficult league to compete in. Back in 2000, the league expanded from a team of seven 1A schools and one 2A school to a nine-team league with the addition of West Central Valley, a 2A school formed by the reorganization of Stuart-Menlo and Dexfield (Redfield). Two years later, the conference added Earlham, which had been a member of the Rolling Hills. As the years moved forward, some of the area 1A teams closest to Des Moines, like Earlham, Des Moines Christian and Van Meter continued to grow so that by last season in volleyball, six of the 10 teams were in 2A and just four in 1A. East Greene has always been comparable in size to Glidden-Ralston and a bit larger than Paton-Churdan, but when those two schools left the conference, EG was by far the smallest school in the West Central and by a significant margin.

But the Hawkettes moved up from a last-place finish in 2003 (0-8) and next-to-last in 2004 (1-8) to the upper division in 2005, tying with Earlham at 4-5 for fifth place. EG dropped down to 1-8 the following year, just ahead of PC (0-9) so it looked dire for the 2007 season as PC would be out of the league that year, replaced by Madrid. PC’s BEDS (Basic Educational Data Survey) enrollment is 35 while Madrid’s is 132, so that was a considerable shift in the competition. Yet EG really stepped up, improving to 4-5 for seventh place and just one game behind Madrid, Guthrie Center and Earlham who tied for fourth at 5-4. The next year EG moved up to a tie for fourth place at 6-3, beating perennial league power Des Moines Christian for the first time in many years. That was an especially tough group of teams as Coon Rapids-Bayard, league champions at 9-0, went on to win the regional tournament and become the first conference team to ever advance to the state tournament.

Another challenge came last year as GR also had moved on to the Rolling Hills and was replaced by Woodward-Granger, which was coming off a championship season in the Heart of Iowa-Small. GR’s BEDS enrollment is 102 while Woodward-Granger’s is 160. WG went 18-6 the previous season and won a predominantly 2A conference. But EG met the challenge head-on and in an even tougher 2009 league, the Hawkettes secured fourth place with another 6-3 conference record. Six of the West Central opponents were in 2A and just three in 1A. EG went 4-2 against its 2A foes, losing to just WG and league champion Guthrie Center, and 2-1 against 1A foes, beating CRB and Madrid but falling to DMC. EG came the closest of all the top teams to upending Guthrie, taking the Tigerettes to an extended fifth game in a five-game match: 27-29, 16-25, 25-22, 25-15, 17-15.

EG took a 14-6 mark into its regional quarterfinal match with Southern Cal, which had advanced to the regional finals each of the previous two seasons and moved on to state in 2007, but fell in three games to the Mustangs, who went on to beat Ar-We-Va in the semifinal round and St. Albert (Council Bluffs) in the championship to make their second trip the state tournament in three years.

EG has a solid freshman class coming into high school this year and several players who got significant experience on the JV and freshman teams last year against a tough slate of teams from the West Central, so look for some of younger players to step up and blend with the EG veterans to put a very competitive team on the floor.

Tiffany should have a pretty good idea of how her team stacks up after tonight’s season opener against Southeast Webster-Grand, a team it has beaten rather handily the last two seasons. SWG is also in somewhat of a rebuilding years as it needs to replace four players who each started for three consecutive seasons.

Saturday’s tournament at CRB should show how the conference race will fare as six of the eight teams in the event are from the Rolling Hills. Along with EG, CRB and St. Mary’s (Storm Lake) the rest of the field are conference foes EHK/Exira, Adair-Casey, Iowa Christian, Ankeny Christian and Paton-Churdan.

CRB, EG, PC and Ankeny Christian are in one pool with EHKE, AC, ICA and St. Mary’s in the other. Each team plays one best-of-three match against its other three pool opponents. Then, the top two teams in each pool advance to the championship. The top team of each pool plays the runner-up of the other in the semifinal round and the winners of those two matches advance to the finals. In the consolation round, the teams that finish third in their pools play each other as do the teams that finish fourth.

Last year, EG finished first in its pool and advanced to the semifinals against PC, which had finished second to CRB in its pool. EG beat the Rockettes to advance to the final, where it beat the Crusaders on their home court to win the championship match.

EG will return to action on Tuesday, Aug. 31 to face Orient-Macksburg in the conference opener in Rippey, and then will venture to Churdan on Thursday, Sept. 2, to take on Paton-Churdan.

In other non-conference matches this year, EG will face former West Central opponents Guthrie Center and Madrid. The Hawkettes will also travel to Walnut to compete in the Walnut Tournament on Oct. 9. The conference tournament is Oct. 14 at Elk Horn and the Class 1A regional tournament begins Oct. 18.

2010 EG Volleyball Schedule

Thurs., Aug. 26 Southeast Webster-Grand @ Rippey
Sat., Aug. 28 Coon Rapids-Bayard Tourney @ Coon Rapids
Tues., Aug. 21 Orient-Macksburg @ Rippey
Thurs., Sept. 2 Paton-Churdan @ Churdan
Tues, Sept. 7 CAM (Anita) @ Rippey
Tues., Sept. 14 Adair-Casey @ Rippey
Thurs., Sept. 16 Ankeny Christian @ Ankeny
Tues., Sept. 21 Iowa Christian @ Rippey
Tues, Sept. 28 Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira @ Elk Horn
Thurs., Sept. 30 Guthrie Center @ Rippey
Tues., Oct. 5 Glidden-Ralston @ Rippey
Thurs., Oct. 7 @ Madrid
Sat., Oct. 9 Walnut Tourney @ Walnut
Tues., Oct. 12 @ Walnut
Thurs., Oct. 14 Rolling Hills Conference Tourney @ Elk Horn
Mon., Oct. 18 Class 1A Regional Tournament

EYE ON GJ SAYS: Let the games begin! This should be an interesting season for EG as there are many unknowns. How will EG fare in the new conference? How will the team do compared to last year’s successful season? How good will the combined EHK and Exira teams be this season? How good is CRB? The IGHSAU has them ranked No. 10 in its preseason poll while Grandview Park Baptist is No. 3.

CRB has been an upper division team the last several years in the West Central and won the league title two years ago (9-0) and went on through the playoffs to win the regional tournament and secure a state berth. Grandview Park Baptist has been to state three times in the last four years, advancing last year to be sidelined by Tripoli, a dominant 1A powerhouse that went on to win its seventh state title in the last 10 years.

Grandview Park has now made six appearances in the state tournament. Back for the Defenders this year is Amanda Bell, who was first team all-state in 1A, in addition to be being named first-team all-district (West Central) and all-conference (Heart of Iowa-Small). GPB is also the defending HOI-S champion.

Another area 1A powerhouse, Southern Cal, is sharing sports with Rockwell City-Lytton as South Central Calhoun, which will be in 2A. Another very strong team the last few years, Schaller-Crestland, a former conference foe of EG, PC and GR in the Coon River Valley Conference, is now sharing with Galva-Holstein as Ridge View, also a 2A team. Ridge View is ranked No. 2 in Class 2A. Also ranked in the 2A preseason poll are Kuemper (Carroll), 5th; East Sac County, 11th; and IKM-Manning 13th.

EG will most likely be grouped in a regional that includes either CRB or Grandview Park Baptist. Three other former West Central foes are in 1A this year: Earlham, Guthrie Center and Madrid. EG will face the latter two in head-to-head non-conference matches.

Des Moines Christian moves up to 2A this year. So with all teams like Exira and EHK combining into one team and Schaller-Crestland, Rockwell City, and Southern Cal no longer competing in 1A in addition to DMC, it’s hard to determine where EG might end up when regional assignments are made. Alta remains a very strong team to the northwest and is ranked 6th in the 1A preseason poll while Martendsale-St. Mary’s to the south is ranked 4th. MSt.M had a very successful season in girls and boys sports last year with the girls advancing to state in both basketball and softball and the boys winning the 1A state baseball title. MSt.M was knocked out in the first round of the regional last year by GPB.