Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – During past seasons when Tricia Carty caught herself talking to her City High volleyball team about taking things day by day it always seemed like a cliché.

In 2020 taking it day at a time is necessity for Carty and the Little Hawks.

“Usually when you talk about the future you say ‘you say lets just worry about now’,” Carty explained. “But we really truly are only worrying about today, today and then we work on tomorrow, tomorrow.”

City High continued to follow its one day at a time model on Monday sweeping Cedar Rapids Washington 25-14, 25-13, 25-9 in a Mississippi Valley Conference Mississippi Division matchup in Iowa City.

Now, the Little Hawks start thinking about tomorrow.

“We really have been taking it day by day because decisions are being made every day,” City High senior Alia Vanderhoef said. “You have to take it a day at a time when you don’t know what is going to happen tomorrow.”

Tuesday marks the first day of the school year for City High and the rest of the schools in the Iowa City Community School District.

A school year that the School District has elected to begin online for two weeks.

The Iowa Department of Education has ruled if a school is not conducting in-person classes it cannot have extra-curricular activities – sports included.

That means a hard stop for athletics on Tuesday.

“We just come to practice or games every day and give it our all knowing that this could be our last day,” City High junior Makayla Ribble said. “I think it just pushes us to play our hardest.”

Since the season started six weeks ago it has been a day to day approach for City High.

That focus has intensified in recent weeks after the District solidified its plan to start the year online.

“We just try to approach every day with a positive attitude because that really helps when you play volleyball,” Vanderhoef said. “We are trying, we are trying to stay positive with everything that is going on.”

Monday’s match was originally scheduled for Tuesday but Cedar Rapids Washington agreed to move the match up a day.

City High took advantage of the opportunity to play one final time before having its season halted.

Six different players had at least three kills as City High (2-4) snapped a three-match losing streak.

Vanderhoef and freshman Claire Ernst each had six kills helping the Little Hawks to a 26-13 edge in kills.

“We know this could be our last game,” Vanderhoef said. “We know if someone says that this was our last game we had to play our hearts out, we had to win it.”

City High used aggressive serving to take control early in each set.

The Little Hawks took control of the opening set with a 15-1 run that erased an early 6-5 deficit.

In set two it was a 16-2 spurt that again came after Cedar Rapids Washington (0-6) took a 6-5 lead.

City High closed the third set with a 20-2 run that snapped a 7-all tie.

“We all just wanted to play this game because we know this could be our last for a while,” Ribble said. “It was important for us to play and to win tonight.”

Ribble had a match-high seven ace serves as the Little Hawks finished with 16 aces as a team.

Ernst and senior Maya Morales each had three aces.

“We knew that if we got them out of rotation that we could score that way,” Ribble said. “If we were able to do that we could run our plays and have success.”

Now, City High will wait to find out if and when it can get back on the court.

“It’s a weight on their shoulders but it really only comes out when you as them,” Carty said. “They are sad because they’ve been putting in the work and it’s been paying off.”

City High                   25  25  25

CR Washington         14  13   9

City High (Kills-aces-blocks)

Norah Jespersen 0-1-0, Zoe Stanhope 0-2-0, Maya Morales 0-3-0, Joslyn Becker 3-0-0, Alia Vanderhoef 6-0-0, Makayla Ribble 3-7-0, Sara Cassady 4-0-0, Ruby McDonough 4-0-1, Claire Ernst 6-3-0, Team 26-16-1.

Assists – Makayla Ribble 16, Maya Morales 1

CR Washington (Kills-aces-blocks)

Lydia Jackson 1-1-0, Hannah Stuelke 4-0-0, Erikka Vessey 4-0-0, Lucci O’Donnell 1-0-0, Mya Messenger 0-2-0, Deja Redmond 2-0-0, Jocelyn Doyle 0-2-0, Anna Wilson 1-0-0, Team 13-5-0.

Assists – Lydia Jackson 6, Jocelyn Doyle 2

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