LISBON — Knowing it would just be a matter of time before her team would break through and post a win on the volleyball court, Lisbon turned out to be the place and Saturday, September 16, was the time the Raiders found their winning volleyball form.

“This has been a very coachable group of kids and we all knew sooner or later, their time was going to come,” said Anamosa volleyball coach Angie Lawrence after her team tallied two triumphs at the Lisbon Invitational and advanced to the tournament semi-finals for the first time in almost a decade. “When we’re at our best, we can play. When we talk and communicate on the floor, we get the job done. It’s when we stop doing those things where we tend to get into trouble.”

Anamosa (2-7, 0-1) tallied a narrow 21-16, 16-21, 15-11 victory over the host Lions and played some of their best volleyball of the season in a pressure-filled third game.

“This was the first time this season I’ve seen the girls with the look in their eyes that they just were not going to lose this match,” said Lawrence. “They had the desire and the drive and the determination to get the job done and they did that. Now if I could just bottle that same mentality and keep it for the rest of the season we’d be fine. But that’s the hard part for us. We need to keep that confidence and know that we can compete.”

Katelyn Jamison led the Raider offense with nine kills against Lisbon converting on 19-of-20 attacks while also adding two solo blocks at the defensive net.

Bryn Gerber added three kills while also setting 14 assists with Kandis Bieber, Dakota Ahrendsen and Maisie Timp all chipping in with two kills each.

Ahrendsen also had a stellar game at the service line drilling six aces going 14-of-15 overall.

Anamosa’s final match of pool play saw a come-from-behind 14-21, 21-19, 15-8 victory over a talented Olin team.

DEWITT — The opportunities were there. The Anamosa football team played well enough on the defensive side of the football to win and put up impressive offensive numbers as well. But in the end, what fans saw was a 24-0 blanking as the Raiders opened class 3A district 5 action with a loss at Central DeWitt in a contest that was much closer than the final score indicated.

“I thought so anyway,” said Kean as his offense tallied more first downs and gained more passing yards than the hosts, but seven key turnovers led to the lopsided score. “When you turn it over that many times, usually the score is a lot more lopsided than just 24-0.
Our defense kept us in the game and our offense moved the football. We just couldn’t end drives with touchdowns. We’d end them with turnovers and that’s not a good formula for winning football games.”

Anamosa (1-2, 0-1) did manage 13 first downs and yielded the Sabers to nine while gaining 111 yards through the air with quarterbacks Kyle Kilburg and Mitch Kelly.

“Another one of our big problems was when we did turn the football over, many of those times, DeWitt didn’t have a long ways to go to score a touchdown. Our offense didn’t help our defense with field position and Central DeWitt, with their good running game, took advantage of our mistakes.”

Kelly led the Anamosa air game passing for 98 yards while Tucker Vondracek gained 59 yards on the ground on 18 carries.

Cody Bickford played another outstanding game defensively tallying 16 tackles while Greg Vernon made his way to another 11 Saber ball carriers for the Raider defense.

“I take some responsibility for this loss too,” said Kean. “I need to do my job and that will be to put the right people in the right places for us to win.”

Double team
Anamosa seniors Cody Bickford and Dustin Edwards block on the offensive line during the Raiders’ 24-0 setback at Central DeWitt Friday, September 15. (Journal-Eureka photo by Daryl Schepanski)

WYOMING — It was a battle of experience vs. youth as the talent-laden Midland volleyball team hosted a young Northeast team Tuesday, September 12, and in the end, the Eagles used that edge to roll to a 25-18, 25-22, 25-16 rout of the Rebels.

“We played well in the first and last games,” said Midland volleyball coach Natalie Schurbon as the Eagles stayed perfect in the Big East Conference with the triumph. “We had a little communication problem in the second game but were able to fix it and come up with the win.”

Northeast, who start three freshmen, gave Midland (9-4, 3-0) a fight in the first two games taking leads late into each game before the hosts rallied to get the win each time.

“Our serving is improving,” said Schurbon. “Sammy Reid served six straight points in game one to help us toward our win. Natasha Yarolem and Sarah Jones also served the volleyball very well.”

Reid, Yarolem and Jones ripped three service aces each at the Rebels.

Midland’s Keilani Fowler was just too much to handle at the offensive net for the Rebels as the Eagle senior tallied nine kills converting on 16-of-18 attacks. Kayla Thordsen added seven kills for the hosts while Jessica Clark chipped in with five more. Reid also added three kills.

“It was nice to see all four teams play well,” said Schurbon as Midland’s freshman, sophomore, JV and varsity teams all posted wins over Northeast.

CASCADE — Proving once again they are gaining ground on the local cross country scene, the Anamosa girls finished 11th and the Raider boys 14th at a very competitive and challenging Cascade Invitational Friday, September 15.

Led by an outstanding effort from Kayla Sanborn, the Raider girls scored 317 points and topped Starmont (331 points), Western Dubuque (339), Mount Vernon (348), MFL-Mar Mac (379), Maquoketa (415), Center Point-Urbana (526), Beckman (556) and Springville (576).

“This was like running a in a mini state meet early in the year,” said Raider cross country coach Phil Kauder. “Kayla ran a very smart and great race. The toughest course of the year and she ran her personal-best time of the year.”

Sanborn crossed the finish line with a time of 17:30 which just missed a medal placing her 21st at the 133-runner event.

“At the Monticello meet, six Monticello runners beat Kayla,” said Kauder. “At Cascade, Kayla beat all the Monticello runners.”

Anamosa star Cammy Dole, coming off her first-place finish at Monticello last week, started the race at Cascade but was forced off the course due to illness.

“The girls finishing 11th at a meet like this without Cammy shows just how far they have come,” said Kauder. “Cammy felt sick and thought she could race but at about the mile and a half mark, she almost had to stop.”

Katie Grassi was the next Raider to cross the finish line posting a solid time of 18:58 which was good enough for 65th at the meet.
Brittney May was 67th with a 19:00 clocking while Chelsea May added a 19:09 effort and was 71st.

Katie VonMuenster finish 93rd after her 19:48 effort and Steph Vernon added a 21:03 clocking which was 119th overall at the huge meet.

Cedar Rapids Xavier ran away with the girls’ team title scoring 43 points to top runner-up Tipton’s 131-point total.

Rebecca Moyer (22:03) and Becca Loy (22:33) ran the JV girls’ race for the Raiders and finished 91st and 107th, respectively.

Led by another solid effort from Mitch Kelly, the Anamosa boys scored 326 points and topped MFL-Mar Mac (349), Maquoketa (434), Midland (475) and Center Point-Urbana (483).

“We struggled all the way around in this one,” said Sauer. “We came into this one with a nothing to lose attitude and our spirits were up, but we couldn’t handle all of Solon’s hitters. They were amazing with the power some of those girls could hit the ball. I was proud of the fact we gave them a run for their money in the second game before just running out of gas.”

Hansen ripped three kills at the Spartans while Jackee Butteris added two more. Stolte set two assists.

Olin closed out the tournament with a narrow 21-14, 19-21, 8-15 loss against Anamosa.

“We had our chances to put this away in the second game and couldn’t get it done,” said Sauer. “Then we started pointing fingers and making excuses. We easily could have won two of these three matches and didn’t win any. It was a pretty frustrating day for us.”

Butteris and Hansen ripped three kills each for the Lions while Stolte added two more with three assists and two service aces.

Makenzie Ginn was 13-of-13 serving with three aces.

Olin hosted Bellevue-Marquette Tuesday, September 12, and were handed a tough 14-25, 15-25, 18-25 loss by the Mohawks.

“Once again our communication break downs cost us,” said Sauer. “Talking is key for us and when we don’t talk, we don’t win.”

Hansen ripped 12 kills at the offensive net and was 9-of-9 serving with 11 digs. Brooke Fuhrmeister added four kills while Katie Weirather chipped in with three more.