Prep volleyball: Sigourney spikers sweep English Valleys
Sep. 28—NORTH ENGLISH — In her first two years of high school softball at Sigourney, Josephine Moore has collected 72 hits.
Some have gone far, including nine that have sailed over the fence for home runs. Moore, however, knows that not every hit requires solid contact.
"Sometimes, when you get one of those bloopers to fall in for a hit, it's pretty exciting," Moore said.
Monday night on the volleyball court, Moore had a few more bloops that dropped in her favor for the Sigourney volleyball team. Of her team-leading five kills in the opening game, three were balls that the sophomore hitter was just simply trying to get over the other side of the net.
Moore also had a pair of kills later in the match that ricocheted off her arm, off the net and off the block attempt of English Valleys. It didn't have to be solid contact to be productive for Moore and Savages during a 25-18, 25-12, 25-18 South Iowa Cedar League sweep of the Bears.
"It's very surprising because those are usually the hits that don't even make it over the net," Moore said. "When they go over, it's exciting. I just need to work at making better contact, but I just had to make it work."
That's been the story of the season for the Savages, who are now 14-5 overall this season and still very much in the thick of the South Iowa Cedar League race at 4-1. Of the five losses in 19 matches, Sigourney has been a set away from winning twice losing a 16-14 decisive third set at the season-opening WACO Tournament to Van Buren County and a 15-8 fifth set to Belle Plaine, allowing the Plainsmen at the moment to own a one-game edge in the SICL standings over the Savages.
"I'm proud of these girls. It's been a super season so far," Sigourney's first-year coach and former all-conference standout Sierra Davis said. "I knew that it would be a good season with all the returning players that we had. They have really stepped it up and proved to me that we are capable of being atop the conference."
As Monday's match went along, Sigourney began to play with more confidence. The Savages were able to build an early lead thanks to a few breaks before putting English Valleys (9-10, 2-4 SICL) away in the opening game with three kids and one of a match-best four blocks by Reagan Clarahan highlighting an 8-5 finishing run.
"We definitely used those games that aren't as close to gain more confidence and hit out of systems that we don't normally hit," Davis said. "It becomes even more fun for them."
Sigourney continued to dominate throughout the second game, leading wire-to-wire after putting the first four points on the board. Brooklyn Hemsley added one of her match-best four ace serves during the game for the Savages while continuing to set up six different teammates for kills throughout the match.
"Brooklyn did a good job setting all us up with good passes," Moore said. "That's really where most of my points came from."
Amiya Smallwood would take over for the Savages down the stretch, helping put the SICL sweep away. Smallwood scored eight of her match-leading 11 kills in the final game as Sigourney was able to put the Bears away after falling behind for the first and only time in the match at 13-12.
"We did well doing our thing," Davis said. "The girls didn't really worry about what they (English Valleys) were doing on the other side of the net. They just set it up and hit it. I'm proud of them for stepping up and finishing it off in three."
Sigourney will be back on the court on Thursday at Montezuma.
— Scott Jackson can be reached at sjackson@ottumwacourier.com. Follow him on Twitter@CourierScott.
