BONDURANT — The Skip Anderson Classic begins with four pools of four teams each. Two pools play at the B-F High School, one pool begins at the B-F Middle School and the other at Anderson Elementary. After the first series of games, the teams are re-seeded and pool play continues.
For Woodward-Granger that meant a Saturday that began at the high school and ended at the elementary. At both sites the Hawks finished with marks of 2-1 to finish the day at 4-2 overall.
The Hawks began play with a 2-1 win over West Des Moines Valley. The Tigers had a BEDS classification (number of students in grades 9-12) last year of 2,140; the Hawks had an official number of 167.
“When we played loosely we played well,” W-G head coach Meg Jackson said of the performance of her team throughout the tourney. “Against a huge school like Valley we were thinking ‘oh well, we should not be able to beat them’ so we just came out and played without an overabundance of caution. We just hit the ball and didn’t play uptight and came out with a nice win.”
An tall and talented Pella squad handed W-G a 2-0 setback in Hawks next match, but the team rebounded for a 2-0 win over West Marshall.
“I thought we were scrambling and keeping balls in play, so I was pleased with our defense today,” Jackson said. “We need to work on terminating plays at the net and being in sync with our setters a little better, but those are things we can easily address.”
W-G topped Davis County, 2-0, in afternoon pool play. A 2-0 loss to North Polk followed, but the Hawks were able to cap the day with a 2-1 victory over Des Moines Christian, a West Central Conference rival.
Mary Hansen had a combined 41 kills to lead W-G, with Bree Lesch adding 29 kills and Olivia McCune 27. Assist leaders for the Hawks were Alyssa Bice (63) and Hansen (33), with McCune making 11 blocks, Julie Pitman four and Ashley Gales three.
Libero players Kara Bodensteiner paced W-G with 48 total digs, with Lesch contributing 38 digs and Kaycee Major 10.
McCune was 49-of-52 serving with six aces, with Lesch 41-of-48 with six aces and Hansen 27-of-32 with nine aces. Major also served well, finishing 37-of-42 behind the line with six aces.
W-G will host West Central Valley Tuesday in a WCC battle, with junior varsity action staring at 5 p.m. The Hawks will then visit the ADM Invitational Thursday, with play beginning at 4 p.m.
