ORANGE CITY — A red-hot Cherokee volleyball team, ranked eighth in Class 3A by Iowa Prep Illustrated suffered its first loss of the season in Pool play to the Class 2A fifth ranked Blackhawks of Hinton, led by junior Bailey Boeve, a 2025 Creighton commit.
Cherokee was coming off a title at the Sheldon Tournament, and finished 3-1 in matches at Unity Christian on Saturday. The Braves opened against Hinton and was defeated 18-21, 19-21. The host Knights came next, and Cherokee beat them 21-19, 21-15. On to Southwest Christian, a Class 3A school from the Red Rock Conference in Minnesota. The Braves finished off the Eagles 21-9, 21-12.
In a matchup of two vs. two from pool play, Cherokee and Sergeant Bluff-Luton locked up in a dandy of a first set, with the Braves edging Warriors 29-27, 21-14.
“We are settling in. I’m definitely satisfied with the weekend. It allowed us to pull somethings apart to get us ready for the week ahead. We didn’t play the best with Hinton, our receive was not the best during the match.”
Tara Lugar, Cherokee head volleyball coach
The meeting with Hinton was the first head-to-head matchup since Sept. 21, 2019. The Blackhawks win snaps a two match losing streak to the Braves.
Boeve is heads above most opponents she faces and showed it against Cherokee. She finished with a match best 14 kills and a individual .480 kill efficiency. Overall, the Blackhawks pounded down 30 kills, and wound up with a sparkling .436 kill efficiency. Katelyn Hoefling had a match-best 24 assists for Hinton, and Ava Vondrak posted a match-best 10 digs and finished 11-for-11 with an ace in serving.
Cherokee was led by senior stalwart Laney Wolfswinkel. She finished with a team-best five kills and eight digs. Cherokee finished with a .250 kill efficiency against Hinton. Cherokee made the most of the service attempts, finishing 33-for-35 (94.3%) with five aces.
Fellow senior Keylee Gregg added three kills, four digs, 1.5 blocks (1 S, 1 A), and finished 6-for-7 serving in the match against Hinton.
Keylee Gregg (8) of Cherokee attempts to lift the ball over Hinton’s Bailey Boeve two-handed block attempt during pool play in the Unity Christian Tournament on Saturday. Photo by Roy Tucker, Tucker Photo. See more action photos on the Tucker Photo website at: https://rtphoto.photoreflect.com
“We have a really balanced team so each each person held their role as expected but the pack was led by Laney and Keylee.”
Tara Lugar, Cherokee head volleyball coach
Cherokee came away with just their second match win over Unity Christian in the last 10 meetings going back to 2007. Cherokee was proficient in passing, kills, digs, blocks and serving. They wound up with 21 kills and a .314 kill efficiency against Unity Christian. The Braves were led by Gregg with eight, Laney Wolfswinkel with five and sophomore Addy Wolfswinkel chipped in with five.
It was Sister’s Wolfswinkel as dig leaders for Cherokee — Laney had a match-best 15, and Addy registered 10 digs. Laney Wolfswinkel was 18-of-19 (94.7) with a service ace. Gregg finished with a match-best eight kills, posted three digs, posted two blocks (1 S, 2 A), and had a 8-for-9 (88.9%) effort in serving.
Cherokee had 9-1/2 blocks against Unity Christian. The 6-foot-1 sophomore Deidra Doeden finished with 3-1/2 blocks (2 S, 3A) to lead the teams efforts.
The Braves received another outstanding effort from Doeden. She led the Braves with six kills and blocks 7.5 (5 S, 5A). Doeden also added six digs against Southwest Christian. As a team Cherokee had a season-best 12 blocks. They also got a flawless effort of 13-for-13 with two aces from Macy Gravenish.
Cherokee defeated Sergeant Bluff-Luton to improve their match record to 6-1. It was the fourth consecutive win in the all-time series against the Warriors.
Cherokee’s two setters completed the tournament with Addy Wolfswinkel recording 12 assists and Elise Anderson posting nine assists. Wolfswinkel and Anderson each finished the tournament with 35 assists.
Laney Wolfswinkel had nine kills, bringing her season total to 36 with a kill efficiency of .325 for the season.
Senior Laney Wolfswinkel (9) of Cherokee powers an outside attack during pool play in the Unity Christian Tournament against Hinton. Photo by Roy Tucker, Tucker Photo. See more action photos on the Tucker Photo website at: https://rtphoto.photoreflect.com
0
0
