This report is from:
By Matt Levins
The Hawk Eye
• Tigers have won two of the last three SEI Superconference volleyball tournaments.
The New London High School volleyball team certainly is no stranger to the SEI Superconference Tournament finals.
After all, the Tigers won three of the first seven tournaments, including two of the last three.
New London, which beat Wapello in last year's Superconference Tournament final, will have to be at the top of its game if it is to advance through pool play and reach the finals this year.
Pool play opens today at Notre Dame and Fairfield Maharishi. The top two teams in each of four pools will advance to the finals Tuesday at Loren Walker Arena on the campus of Southeastern Community College in West Burlington.
"We would like to do well, but we know there are going to be a lot of teams out to get us," New London coach Maureen Heath said. "We don't have quite the amount of experience we had last year, but we still have some strong players and we seem to be playing really well. Saturday will be a real test for us just to come out of pool play. It just depends on how bad we want to be at SCC on Tuesday. We have got to be ready to play. We can't take anybody lightly. There are some very competitive teams in our pool. WACO is having a good season and Winfield-Mount Union and Pekin are always tough. You just never know."
New London (15-3-1), ranked 17th in Class 1A, drew the top seed for the tournament and will be in Pool 1 at Fairfield Maharishi.
Iowa Mennonite School (11-3-1), ranked 23rd in Class 1A and a tournament finalist two years ago, is the third seed and the top team in Pool 3 at Fairfield Maharishi.
New London is coming off a victory in the Pekin Invitational Thursday night. The Tigers, though, will be in new surroundings.
"We haven't played at Maharishi before, so this will be something new," Heath said. "It's important to be ready. We need to be aggressive and keep our mental stability throughout the day. It gets to be a long day. It is going to be nip and tuck until the end. I just hope we have our best game going. We are going to need to."
Mediapolis (12-6-3), which won the inaugural SEI Superconference Tournament in 1993, is the second seed and the top team in Pool 2 at Notre Dame.
The Bullettes are coming off a big win against IMS Thursday night in a triangular at Mediapolis.
"Right now, we have our moments when we play some pretty good volleyball," Mediapolis coach Dennis Jandrey said. "It is going to be very difficult. Central Lee is the No. 1 team in the West Division and Marquette is getting one of their best players, Bobbi Steffensmeier, back. It is a very difficult pool. We have got to come down and take care of our side of the net. We have to play consistently and concentrate on what we are doing on our side. If we do that, we should be all right."
Fort Madison Aquinas (10-1), ranked 18th in Class 1A, is the fourth seed and the top team in Pool 4 at Notre Dame. The Lady Dons are coming off a victory Tuesday over Marquette.