Fast-paced Hawks hitting harder, too

MANCHESTER - A phone call interrupted Brett Mather between classes on Tuesday.

This wasn't idle time. He was scoping out a video on blocking.

'It's one area in which I'm never happy with,” said Mather, head volleyball coach at West Delaware High School. 'It's the area in which we could improve most.”

Everything else? Well, that's pretty solid.

It's another typical team at West Delaware. A fast-paced, dig-up-everything-it-can team. A winning team.

The Class 4A second-rated Hawks improved to 22-0 overall (3-0 Wamac Conference East Division) with a sweep of Anamosa on Tuesday.

'So far, we're playing at a pretty fast pace,” Mather said. 'Our communication has improved a lot. (Libero) Emily (Thole) has really taken it to a new level. She's doing a great job telling the team where the other team is going to go with the ball.”

West Delaware withstood its first real test of the season Saturday, outlasting Class 3A No. 3 Independence in a three-setter (15-13 in the third) in the championship match of its home invitational.

'Indee played a great match. It wasn't as if we played bad,” Mather said. 'They had us on our heels. It took a while to pull it out.”

The Hawks opened their season with 20 consecutive sweeps.

Mather's teams traditionally are defense-oriented outfits, and this is no exception. But a year of maturity and strength has bolstered the hitting crew.

Last year, the Hawks posted a team kill efficiency of .270. So far this fall, it's .348 - eighth-best in the state.

The top three hitters - Kristen Wegmann (2.94 kills per set), Addison Brooks (2.15) and Bridget Hoffmann (1.82) - are juniors. So is setter Carlee Ketchum.

'We always have three hitters in the front line that are able to put the ball away,” Mather said. 'We have a better ability this year to put the ball away a little quicker.”

The Hawks will compete at the Monticello Invitational on Saturday.

KNIGHTS REIGNING AGAIN

North Cedar became the first area team to put its stamp on a league championship, defeating Camanche on Tuesday to wrap up at least a share of the River Valley Conference North Division title.

The Class 2A 12th-ranked Knights are 15-6 overall, 4-0 in the division. They'll have to wait a while for the opportunity to win it outright; their division finale is Oct. 9 at Northeast (9-6, 2-2).

This is the second year of the River Valley, and the second year the Knights have ruled the North.

There's no reason to figure it will end any time soon. The regular rotation does not include a senior, and the top five hitters consist of a freshman (Darby Hawtrey leads the way at 1.88 kills per set), three sophomores and a junior. Setters Emily Hay and Becca Ahrendson are a sophomore and a junior.

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