MANCHESTER— Looking to make a good first impression competing at their first WaMaC Conference cross country meet Thursday, October 11, Anamosa did more than that running in Manchester at the Hart Ridge Golf Course, they proved themselves among the league’s best.

“I told the girls I thought third would be a good effort, but we should be third, fourth or fifth and even better if we get super races out of everyone,” said Raider cross country coach Phil Kauder after his girls did indeed finish fifth scoring 130 points, a mere four points shy of third in the conference race. “We had two girls ran faster than the school record Cammy set in 2005 on the same course and Kellie Vaughn was right in there, too.”

Kayla Sanborn and Dole topped the previous school best on the course as Sanborn crossed the finish line with a time of 15:44, finishing a sensational fourth in the conference while Dole finished with a 16:11 clocking, giving Anamosa two girls in the league top-10 as she finished 10th overall.

MARION — With Dakota Ahrendsen out due to a knee injury and Maisie Timp battling a sore ankle, the Anamosa volleyball team limped into their first WaMaC Conference tournament Thursday, October 11.

“We also had several girls playing out of position and doing the best they could to compensate for the loss of Dakota,” said Raider volleyball coach Angie Lawrence as her team opened the tournament held at Marion against Central DeWitt. “We came out ready to play in game one. Maisie was being very aggressive at the net and we were keeping the ball in play and hustling and playing with a lot of effort in the first game.”

The Sabers handed Anamosa (0-24, 0-8) a 6-21, 3-21 defeat in the opening match of pool play for both teams.

“Our goals were to keep the ball in play and not miss a serve,” said Lawrence. “We did that in game one, but in game two we didn’t communicate enough. We did miss serves, and we shut down mentally.”

Katelyn Jamison and Timp tallied the two lone kills in the match for the Raiders coming through with one each while Steph Thompson set the two assists. Chelsea Arensdorf tallied a pair of digs while Jackie Engelbart and Kandis Bieber came through with one dig each.

Thompson also led the Anamosa serving game going 5-for-5 with an ace. Christy Coons added a 3-for-3 match.

Anamosa played Waterloo Columbus next, and against the eventual WaMaC Conference tournament champions, were handed a rough 8-21, 6-21 defeat.

“Waterloo Columbus is a very good, aggressive offensive team,” said Lawrence. “They have very good jump servers, which we had a very difficult time receiving against.”

The Sailors scored the bulk of their points in the match with their amazing serving game while the Raiders struggled with their own going 8-of-14 overall in the match with one ace.

“Our goal once again was to not miss serves and keep the ball in play,” said Lawrence. “We didn't reach any of our goals in this match missing six serves. We would just give the ball back to their hard servers and shank passes not keeping the ball in play.”

Engelbart and Jamison tallied the lone kills in the match for the Raiders while Timp tallied three assists. Jamison and Coons swatted back one Waterloo Columbus shot each while Coons recorded the lone service ace in the match for Anamosa.

The final match of pool play and the tournament for the Raider girls saw an inspired effort in a 12-21, 18-21 loss at the hands of Center Point-Urbana.

“The girls played much better in this match,” said Lawrence. “It was good to see us end the night on a positive. We only missed four serves in two games and we did keep the ball in play.

EPWORTH— It’s been a concern for Anamosa football fans for most of the 2007 season, but Friday, October 12, the Raider defense stepped up and gave a more than inspired effort in a 27-7 defeat at Western Dubuque time and again turning back a tough and talented Bobcat offense.

“There’s no doubt we’ve had our troubles stopping the opposing offense so far this year, but our guys stepped up big time in this game and played, what I thought, was their best game of the year against a pretty good Western Dubuque team that was pretty fired up for their homecoming game,” said Raider football coach Matt Malausky. “If our offense could have matched that effort, we might have won the game. We just struggled and had far too many dropped passes to be able to leave the field with a win Friday night. It was pretty frustrating too, seeing perfect passes dropped time and again and many that could have gone for big, big yards, too.”

The sensational and determined play from the Anamosa (1-6, 1-4) defense kept the Raiders in the hunt for the win through most of the contest until a fourth quarter interception, and subsequent touchdown, ended hopes for the upset bid.

“We’ve been working on a lot of new things defensively in practice and I think they’re really starting to pay off and show dividends during the games now, too,” said Malausky. “We held them to only 117 rushing yards on 47 carries. That’s a pretty impressive number right there.”

Overall the Anamosa defense only allowed 293 total yards to the Western Dubuque offense while amassing 274 of their own in the contest played in front of a packed house in Epworth.

The hosts got on the board first in the very first quarter when quarterback Landon Klosterman ended a long drive with a one-yard touchdown plunge to get the Bobcats on the board.