Marshalltown volleyball beats Waverly-Shell Rock for first Apgar Invite victory since 2020
An aggressive Marshalltown volleyball team fought its way back to a victory at their home tournament in the Roundhouse on Thursday night.
The Bobcats rallied to a three-set victory over Waverly-Shell Rock as part of a 1-2 finish at the Pat Apgar Invitational at Marshalltown High School.
MHS won 9-21, 23-21, 18-16 over the Go-Hawks, who were a preseason ranked team in Class 4A before falling out of the rankings this week. It was Marshalltown’s first win in the Apgar Invite since a three-set victory over Waterloo Columbus in 2020.
“We definitely have to celebrate those successes,” Marshalltown head coach Jen O’Neal said. “The last couple of years the girls have struggled with that part, so coming away with a win was great for us, and we’re just going to continue to elevate.”
The win came on the heels of a disappointing three-set loss to Waterloo Columbus, where the Sailors came from behind to win 17-21, 21-19, 15-12 over the Bobcats. Solon, ranked ninth in Class 3A, made short work of Marshalltown in the final match of the night, 21-9, 21-8, to win the round robin with a 3-0 record.
In the first set with Waverly-Shell Rock, the Go-Hawks ran away with the set on a 10-0 closing run fueled by four aces from Dawn Meyer-Lillibridge.
“Our serve receive was on point to start and then we started to falter,” O’Neal said. “We really talked about cleaning that up since we can’t run our offense if we can’t get a good pass off. That’s definitely something we’ll focus on in practice tomorrow and Monday.”
On the brink of defeat at 20-17 in the second set, the Bobcats got kills from Kennedy Feldman and Madison Rogers, then an ace serve from McKenna Coleman to tie it at 20-all. W-SR had match point again after a Sydney Bienemann kill but the Bobcats landed the next three points in a row for the win.
“We’re always going after the ball, playing aggressive,” O’Neal said. “Our bench is looking for where there’s open spots and it’s just, play aggressive, stay aggressive. Instead of giving them a free ball we gotta make them move a bit.”
The Go-Hawks looked like they’d be the comeback kids in the third set played to 15 points, coming back from a 13-7 deficit to eventually take a 15-14 lead. An attack error on match point gave Marshalltown an opening and Feldman placed an ace to put the pressure back on the Go-Hawks. Bienemann once again answered with a block but a service error and hitting error by Waverly-Shell Rock clinched the win for the Bobcats.
Columbus used a 5-0 run in the second set to tie the match and finished off the third set after Marshalltown broke three match points, which included kills from Laney Danielson and Olivia Holmgren.
“We’ve just got to get that pass so we can run our offense,” O’Neal said. “It’s between that and quickening up our offense. We’re trying to run some different sets, and going hard, trying to confuse the defense.”
Solon, last year’s state runners-up in Class 3A now coached by former West Liberty skipper Ruben Galvan, went on a 19-5 run in the first set and started the second set up 12-2.
“We definitely aspire to play on that level, to play as quickly as they do,” O’Neal said. “It’s good to have that on film now and see how we can emulate that in our game, but also how we can pick apart those teams that do the same thing.”
With nine seniors on the roster this year, O’Neal sees a close-knit group working hard in O’Neal’s first year at the helm for the Bobcats.
“They have that cohesion, that sense of community where they want to play with each other and for each other,” O’Neal said. “That’s helpful for me as a first year coach where that’s one part I don’t have to worry about. They’re one team and that’s what we keep aspiring to be.”
