Marshalltown volleyball makes quick work of Des Moines East in home-court finale
After more than a week of anticipation, the Marshalltown volleyball team was fired up for its final home game on Thursday night.
The Bobcats blew past Des Moines East in straight sets at the Roundhouse to close out regular-season play in the Iowa Alliance.
MHS won, 25-6, 25-11, 25-13 and improved to 11-15 overall.
After celebrating Senior Night last Tuesday against Des Moines North, Thursday’s “Pink Out” game was a chance to raise money in the fight against metastatic breast cancer and also created an energetic atmosphere that the Bobcats fed off to quickly dispatch the Scarlets.
Marshalltown’s eight seniors embraced after the match with some bittersweet tears in their final night playing in the Roundhouse.
“Us seniors really wanted to go out there strong, be together, play together, and just come out with a positive attitude and a win,” said MHS senior Ellie Hughes.
MHS ended the first set on a 12-0 run and started the second set on a 13-3 run to quickly sprint to a 2-0 lead in the best-of-5 match.
Kennedy Feldman had 11 kills for the Bobcats, Laney Danielson added 10 kills and Madison Rogers put down seven kills.
Many points were scored at the MHS service line as well, with 15 total ace serves from the Bobcats, including 8 from Feldman and five from McKenna Coleman.
“We had to stay aggressive no matter who’s on the other side of the net,” MHS head coach Jen O’Neal said. “And we served really aggressively. Kennedy in that third set hit about 90 percent of the serves that I called, maybe more, and that just makes such a huge difference when you’re trying to attack the other team.”
Feldman added seven digs; Danielson and Gaby Estabrook had six digs each.
While the scores were ho-hum on paper, the energy had clearly gone up a notch as the Bobcats head into the home stretch of the schedule.
“It was almost like a second senior night,” O’Neal said. “These girls said that it’s their last game on this home court, so let’s go out there and show what we can do. And I think we’ve got the best bench in the state. They’re always in the game, always cheering, super supportive and I just thought the energy level was really, really great.”
Next up for the Bobcats is an Oskaloosa tournament on Saturday. It’s the final tune-up for the Gold Division bracket of the Alliance’s conference tournament, scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 19 at Fort Dodge High School.
“Last year, we came out kinda slow,” Hughes said of the Alliance gold bracket in Ames last fall. “This year we just need to go out as strong as we can, and just come out with full swings, all effort, and just keep a steady pace so we can win every game.”
And before you know it, the Bobcats will head to Iowa City West for a Class 5A Region 4 semifinal scheduled for Oct. 24 in Iowa City.
“We had a long stretch of playing without time off and then we hit homecoming and a bit of a lull where now we’re really approaching our second season,” O’Neal said. “We’re getting back into the swing of things and getting prepared to go the distance. I was really proud of their intensity. This is the kind of gameplay we need to take with us to keep going.”
