CASCADE— It’s one of the most competitive cross country meets Anamosa will take part in all season long, and the Raiders were up to the challenge Friday, September 14, in Cascade.

“Homecoming week is always tough and when you lose one of your top-5 runners to a powder puff football game and not find out about it until basically the bus is pulling up taking us to Cascade, makes things even tougher,” said Raider cross country coach Phil Kauder as he had to do without the services of Chelsea May taking his team to his home town. “I did not know what to expect from the girls but several of them stepped up and had good races on what is a pretty tough course to run.”

While Cammy Dole and Kayla Sanborn once again led the Anamosa girls’ pack in Cascade, Kellie Vaughn made huge strides at the meet tallying a sensational season-best clocking of 17:37 finishing 24th overall at the 132-runner event.

“The conditions here weren’t exactly ideal either,” said Kauder. “It was cold and windy, but Kellie battled through with the race of the season for her so far.”

Dole finished a solid 17th overall tallying a time of 17:17 while Sanborn was right on her heels finishing 21st with a time of 17:30.

“Cammy and Kayla got out there and closed the gap on the Monti girls,” said Kauder. “Finishing ninth-place as a team without Chelsea is really a good effort. I was hoping for a top-10 effort with Chelsea running, so this is a good thing, homecoming week and all.

Katie Grassi finished 91st overall crossing the finish line with a time of 19:43 while Rebecca Moyer, who was battling illness, came through with another solid effort posting a time of 20:56 on the tough course and finishing 111th.

ANAMOSA — Say what you will about the Raider football team during their rough start to the 2007 campaign, but if you didn’t have a good look at the scoreboard and could only see the sideline and field of play Friday, September 14, you’d swear Anamosa was knotted in a tight battle to the finish hosting Central DeWitt on homecoming night.

“We showed some heart, that’s for sure,” said Raider football coach Matt Malausky as his team kept their intensity all the way through a thorough 41-0 lashing at the hands of the Sabers. “One thing I will say about this team is that they never quit and have always given me their all in every game we’ve played so far this year. At this point, that’s all I can ask for. We’re making progress. It may not be easily visible to the fan in the stands, but to us coaches, we’re proud of this group of guys and can’t wait to see what kind of effort we’ll get out of them next week and beyond.”

Against Central DeWitt, Anamosa (0-3, 0-1) struggled mightily, especially on the defensive side of the football where the visitors piled up a whopping 431 yards of total offense, including 419 with a punishing ground game that had the Raiders frustrated all game long.

““DeWitt’s mis-direction plays on offense had us confused all game long,” said Malausky. “We were almost over-aggressive and were falling for just about every fake they gave us and by the time we figured out who had the football, they were 10 yards downfield. It was pretty much that way all night long, but just like our other games so far this year, we’re going to take this game and chalk it up as another learning experience and move forward.”

The Sabers’ offense was impressive to say the least, especially in the first quarter when they scored on their first four drives of the contest and quickly shot out to a 27-0 advantage.

LISBON — Taking the weekend off from the rigors of the WaMaC Conference, the Anamosa volleyball team made their annual trip to compete at the Lisbon Invitational Saturday, September 15.

Anamosa (0-10 0-2) opened against Clear Creek-Amana and were handed an 11-21, 14-21 setback in early morning pool play action.

“We didn’t start the match very well falling behind 5-1 right off the bat,” said Raider volleyball coach Angie Lawrence. “But the girls fought back and tied it up in that first game, but after they called a timeout, we just couldn’t get that momentum back from there. The second game was the same. We just can’t seem to finish.”

Katelyn Jamison paced the Raider offense with four kills attacking the net 12 times while Jackie Engelbart, Maisie Timp, Christy Coons and Dakota Ahrendsen all added one kill each to the offensive effort.

“Right now we are just too inconsistent,” said Lawrence. “We play so well one minute then the next we look like we just started playing together.”

The Raiders’ next match was a 15-21, 21-13, 7-15 loss against the host Lions.

“We were more awake for this match and ready to play,” said Lawrence. “We were focused in that second game. That’s where Maisie and Katelyn each had four aces and we just played better together as a team. I just wish we could keep that mentality in every game. Passing and serve receive cost us in the third game and we made too many mental mistakes too.”

Jamison and Timp led the offense with three kills each while Coons and Ahrendsen each added two more. Kandis Bieber set four assists while Ahrendsen came through with three more.

The final match of the tourney saw a tough 16-21, 6-21 setback at the hands of Monticello.

“The girls had a chance to pay back Monticello for the loss they gave us September 6, but again we were not ready to play. At times, wow, we looked good. Everyone talking and hustling trying to make the play. But we have more down times and just can’t find a way to get out of the funk and fight back.”

Engelbart and Coons hammered home two kills each to lead the Raiders against the Panthers. Chelsea Arensdorf and Steph Thompson tallied four digs each.

The Raiders traveled to Beckman Tuesday, September 11, for their first WaMaC Conference road match, and without Lawrence on the sideline, who was home sick, Anamosa came out on the short end of a 13-25, 2-25, 13-25 defeat.

BELLEVUE — When looking at just the statistics, it appeared the Olin volleyball team was right in the match at Bellevue-Marquette Tuesday, September 11.

But sometimes, statistics don’t tell the whole story, and in a 13-25, 14-25, 6-25 loss against the Mohawks, Lion volleyball coach Hillary Sauer knew this was one of those times.

“I couldn’t believe it when I sat down and did the stats after the match,” said Sauer. “It appeared we played pretty well, but anyone who was there and saw this match played out on the floor, saw something completely different. This was an ugly match all the way around. We weren’t moving and we didn’t talk on the court. We just came out flat and struggled the whole night. I guess the stats don’t always show the complete picture.”

Olin (4-6, 0-2) was led offensively by Kalli Hansen who drilled nine kills at Bellevue-Marquette defenders who even dared to attempt to block her powerful spikes.

WYOMING — It was one of Midland’s signature wins a season ago when the Eagle football team knocked off a very good Central City team on their own home field.
Friday, September 14, however, the Wildcats returned the favor in Wyoming.

“Central City has another pretty good ground game and we struggled all game long slowing that down,” said Eagle football coach Josh Bentley after his team was handed a rough 20-0 setback at the hands of the Wildcats. “We didn’t stop the run and we weren’t strong in the trenches on either side of the football. I thought those were pretty much the two keys to Central City winning and us struggling.”

Midland (1-2, 1-2) did have success throwing the football as quarterback Cody Dirks accumulated an impressive 119 yards through the air while also rushing for 65 yards on 21 carries.

“Cody had another big game for us,” said Bentley. “He just continues to grow as a quarterback. I also thought Ryan Dunne did a nice job of catching the ball and giving us a threat out there.”

Several times during the contest the Midland offense went to the five-wide style and it resulted in several spectacular grabs, one by Dunne that set the hosts up deep in Central City territory.

“But once we’d get down there inside the 20-yard-line, the lack of us being able to be physical in the trenches caught up with us,” said Bentley. “We will address that issue this week.”

The Wildcats made their first dent in the scoreboard late in the first quarter when Nathan Livingston scampered 25 yards into the end zone. After a Chris Hagerman extra point, the visitors held a 7-0 advantage.