BOONE — Woodward-Granger moved to within one victory of their first state volleyball tournament appearance since 2011 after blitzing Fort Dodge St. Edmond, 3-0, Thursday in a Class 2A Region 3 Semifinal.
W-G (25-13) dispatched FDSE (17-14) behind scores of 25-17, 25-18 and 25-18. They will face fourth-ranked St. Albert (26-3) in Atlantic Tuesday at 7 p.m., with the winner earning a semifinal spot in Cedar Rapids. The Falcons made quick work of AC/GC (21-10), 3-0, on scores of 25-14, 25-9 and 25-12 Thursday.
“The girls are ready to give everything they have,” W-G head coach Meg Jackson said. “They believe in themselves and know, with the schedule that we have played, that we can play with anyone and deserve to be there.”
“Saying that, we also know it will not be easy, because St. Albert is a great team who has played some tough teams, too,” she added. “Our goal, as always, will be to see improvements in every part of our game in the next few practices and then take that out onto the court.”
W-G was coming off an emotional 3-1 defeat of No. 7 Tri-Center Monday on the Trojans’ home floor in Neola.
“We were a little flat (Thursday), but that was probably because of Monday,” Jackson said of the sweep of the Gaels. “That was such an emotional high, and then we had to come back down and re-prepare for another game, and it probably effected us a little bit.”
“Our serve receive could have been better, but we connected well with our hitters and put the ball down,” she said. “Now we have to use these next few days to be ready to play our best volleyball.”
W-G, who leads Class 2A in ace serves, had eight points from aces Thursday to raise their season total to 338. Anna Tague was 10-of-12 with three aces, Emma Drake 20-22-2, Kaycee Major 13-13-1, Katelyn Bandstra 10-11-1 and Julie Pitman 8-9-1 with Ashlyn Soelberg 4-of-5 behind the line.
Ashley Gales had 12 kills and Pitman 11, with Alyssa Bice adding six kills and Tague and Alissa Smeltzer four each. Drake had two solo blocks and Bice one, with Pitman and Tague sharing a block.
Drake distributed 31 of the 37 Hawk assists, with Bice adding three, Major two and Marissa Pasker one. Major led the team with 12 digs, with Soelberg adding 11 while Bice and Drake had nine each to spark the defense.
