Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – City High and Cedar Rapids Kennedy opened the season with a highly competitive, entertaining set of well-played volleyball.

Unfortunately for the Little Hawks it was the opening set that set the tone on Tuesday.

Class 5A No. 14 Cedar Rapids Kennedy scored the final three points of the opening set and never slowed down in a 27-25, 25-19, 25-15 win over No. 15 City High in a Mississippi Valley Conference Valley Division match in Iowa City.

“I think the first set was a great set of volleyball and we just made too many unforced errors,” City High coach Tricia Carty said. “You will have that in the first match of the year but to make as many unforced errors as we did and then lose by two it kind of set the tone.”

Emma Koeppen had a match-high 12 kills for Cedar Rapids Kennedy and Jenna Younge and Adalyn Hermanson each added nine as the Cougars finished with a 35-26 edge in kills.

Kennedy also had 12 ace serves from five different players but it was the late flurry at the end of the opening set that swung momentum to the Kennedy bench and the Cougars never let it get away.

City High had set point twice in the opening set at 24-23 and again at 25-24 but Kennedy didn’t flinch.

A kill by Koeppen tied the match at 25-all and a net violation on City High gave the Cougars a 26-25 lead.

Jacey Powell closed out the comeback with an ace block.

“I think it can be a difference maker when you have a set that is that close and we are right there and we know that we have some of those self-inflicted wounds,” Carty said. “It’s mentally a little more challenging to rebound after that and we just dug ourselves a hole.”

Kennedy used an 8-1 run to turn a one-point lead into a 13-5 margin in the second set.

City high got as close as 20-16 late but the Cougars scored five of the final seven points while taking a two sets to none lead.

“After that first set we were kind of stressing and pushing too much and not taking care of the little things,” Carty said. “We didn’t take care of the things that we have set as our standard.”

City High led 6-2 early in the third set and again at 9-8 but Kennedy scored five of the next six points and never trailed again.

“You have to come in expecting every night to execute to the best of your ability,” Carty said. “I don’t think we executed as well as we are capable of tonight but we can learn from that and we can fix that and hopefully show what we are capable of for an entire match.”

Junior Claire Ernst had six of her team-high 11 kills in the second set while sophomore Emmy McComas had six kills for the Little Hawks.

Senior setter Norah Jespersen had three kills and 18 assists in her first career start while Sidney Slay added three hits for City High.

“We were making the right decisions but maybe just not physically executing as well as we need to,” Carty said. “That I am really encouraged by.”

CR Kennedy              27  25  25

City High                   25  19  15

Cedar Rapids Kennedy (Kills-aces-blocks)

Mara Fluent 2-3-1, Greenly Fawcett 3-0-0, Emma Koeppen 12-3-0, Adalyn Hermanson 7-0-0, Aliya Ballard 0-1-0, Sophia Barbieri 0-2-0, Jacey Powell 5-0-3, Jenna Younge 7-0-1, Sammie Loney 2-0-0, Totals 35-12-5.

Assists – Mara Fluent 24, Sophia Barbieri 1

City High (Kills-aces-blocks)

Mia Driscoll 0-2-0, Norah Jespersen 3-1-0, Sidney Slay 3-0-0, Ruby McDonough 2-0-1, Lauren Koch 1-0-0, Claire Ernst 11-1-1, Emmy McComas 6-1-1, Totals 26-5-3.

Assists – Norah Jespersen 18

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