by Kent Harshbarger

Hawks Soar over Bullettes in Regional

The Mid Prairie Lady Hawks ended the Mediapolis Bullettes' volleyball season with a 3-1 win at Mid Prairie High School on October 28th in a 2A regional semi-final. Mid Prairie won the opener 25-17, but the Bullettes rebounded for a 25-20 in game two. The Lady Hawks cruised to 25-12 and 25-10 wins in games three and four to end the Bullettes' season.

In the opening game, Mid Prairie jumped to a 7-0 lead from which the Bullettes could not recover, though they did play the Hawks even the rest of the way. Bethany Weber sparked the Mepo comeback with four kills and a pair of blocks.
Stef Shalla led the Hawks to the win with four kills. She had strong support from Amy Boehmer who added three kills.

The momentum picked up by the Bullettes late in game one carried over to game two. After falling behind 3-1, Mediapolis scratched back and a kill by Monica Holsteen knotted the score at 4-4. Back to back kills by Marissa Dideriksen and Lydia Ertz gave Mediapolis their first lead of the night at 7-6.

Mid Prairie came right back to grab a 10-7 lead on two kills each by Dani Boyd and Hannah Boehmer. Kills by Jesika McLaughlin and a combination block by McLaughlin and Dideriksen kept the Bullettes close. Two ace serves by Brittany Griffith put Mepo back on top at 13-12, but again the Lady Hawks came back as Hannah Boehmer served four straight points. Mid Prairie still led 18-17 when McLaughlin registered her third kill of the game. Ertz followed with another kill to give Mepo the lead.

They would not trail again in the game, though the Hawks did tie the score at 20-20. After Mid Prairie was called for a lift to make it 21-20, Dideriksen served a point and Mepo went up 23-20 on a block by McLaughlin. Two kills by Amy Boehmer tied the score at 23-23, but Mepo earned a side out and a 24-23 lead. The game ended when McLaughlin followed Amber Scott's serve with another kill.

Both teams missed some early serves in game three. Weber's kill and a call for four hits against the Hawks knotted the score at 5-5. Jessie Murphy served three straight points for an 8-5 Mid Prairie lead. Mepo earned a side out, but was immediately called for lift, which Mepo head coach Dennis Jandrey protested. Trailing 13-9, the Bullettes were called for another lift and the Lady Hawks went on a 10-2 run to end the game. An ace by Boyd and two kills by Amy Boehmer and one each by Shalla and Katie Herrington fueled the run.

The Lady Hawks continued to dominate in game four, jumping to a 7-2 lead as Shalla and Herrington controlled the net with two kills each. The Bullettes could get nothing going as they seemed unable to handle either the Lady Hawks serving or the play of Shalla, both Boehmers and Herrington. Trailing 17-5, McLaughlin and Ertz came up with back to back kills to trim the lead to 18-7, but a kill by Hannah Boehmer ended the mini run and sent the home team back on the attack. Two more kills by Shalla and one by Herrington made the score 23-10. Another kill by Shalla put the Bullettes at match point and Boyd ended the Mepo season with a final spike.

Jandrey was disappointed with the loss, but recognized the quality of the opposition. "It's disappointing to lose, but they have a lot of good athletes. The Eastern Iowa Hawkeye conference is really tough this year. We lost to West Branch in a tournament and they finished sixth in that conference," Jandrey said.

The coach could not explain his team's poor start in game one. "I didn't think we were nervous. We didn't act nervous in pre game, but they hit a couple of serves in a row and boom we were down 7-0," Jandrey said.

He was proud of his team's comeback in game one and their play in game two. "In the last part of game one and in game two, we did the things we wanted to do on our side of the net. We were aggressive serving and ran a decent offense. I thought Jesika McLaughlin really came to play," Jandrey said.

Jandrey was not sure what happened in games three and four, though he did point to improved play by Shalla, a senior move in from Highland. "Number 10 didn't start very well, but she was really banging the ball the last two games and she had a lot of help," Jandrey said.

His own team struggled with serve reception in the final two games and Jandrey was not sure why. "I don't think they did anything we hadn't seen. They just got on a roll and we couldn't stop them," the coach said.

While he did not want to make excuses, Jandrey did feel a couple of calls changed the momentum. "There was a stretch in that third game where I felt we still had the momentum. Then, there were a couple of questionable lift calls. Those were big points," Jandrey said.

Shalla finished with 14 kills for the Hawks. Amy Boehmer added 10, Boyd and Herrington had six each and Hannah Boehmer five.

For the Bullettes, Weber had eight kills and McLaughlin six. Ertz, Holsteen and Dideriksen had three each. Kester had 20 assists in the match and Dideriksen four. At the service line, Mepo served 94% (63-67), but recorded only two aces, both by Griffith.

Defensively, Weber led all blockers with seven. Kester and Holsteen had one and a half blocks each. Dideriksen came up with 17 digs and Holsteen had 16. Scott had nine and Kester eight.

The loss ended the careers of Kester, Scott, Ertz and Aurey Kramer. Mepo bowed out with a 28-14 match record. Mid Prairie advanced to play Pella Christian in a regional final at Oskaloosa on November 2.

2A Regional Volleyball
@ Mid Prairie

Mid Prairie 25-20-25-25
Mepo 17-25-12-10

Mediapolis Team Statistics
Serves/Aces: Kester 15-16-0, Holsteen 10-11-0, Weber 10-10-0, Dideriksen 9-9-0, Scott 8-9-0, Kramer 3-3-0, Griffith 8-9-2, TEAM 63-67-2.
Kills: Holsteen 3, Weber 8, Dideriksen 3, McLaughlin 6, Ertz 3, TEAM 23.
Assists: Kester 20, Dideriksen 4, Scott 1, TEAM 25.
Blocks: Weber 7, Kester 1.5, Holsteen 1.5, Dideriksen 1, McLaughlin 1, Ertz 1, TEAM 12.
Digs: Kester 8, Holsteen 16, Weber 7, Dideriksen 17, Scott 9, Kramer 3, Griffith 2, Ertz 4, Keller 1, TEAM 67.
Bullettes' Record: Matches (All 28-14, Division 5-2), Games (All 72-16, Division 18-7).