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North Tama moves onto the semifinals to face Janesville
The Redhawks beat Sidney in straight sets and now will face Janesville in the semifinals of the 2025 IGHSAU volleyball tournament
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CORALVILLE - The North Tama volleyball team was definitely "Pretty in Pink" on Tuesday night.
The third-ranked Redhawks were sporting the pink-themed jerseys just because they are the team's favorites according to Coach Channing Halstead.
"They kind of fit in with the theme (IGHSAU) has down here with all the pink," Halstead said with a big smile. "They worked out pretty well for us tonight."
The Redhawks favorite outfits will likely get another run on Wednesday night, following their straight-set win over No. 8 Sidney in a Class 1A quarterfinal at Xtream Arena.
Set scores were 25-19, 25-21, 26-24.
The victory sends Halstead's team (29-13) into a 6:25 p.m. semifinal match on Wednesday against Janesville, a four-set winner over Gladbrook-Reinbeck.
One play on the fourth set epitomized the North Tama team. After winning the first two sets, the Redhawks were down 24-22 in the third, when they were able to win the point of the match.
Both teams made save after save, but none more spectacular than the one junior Grace Dvorak made, running away from the court, bumping the ball back on court just before crashing into the hockey boards at the end of the arena.
"It didn't surprise me that it was Grace making that play," Halstead said. "With Grace there have been a couple instances where officials have asked us if we wanted to go check on her. She wouldn't tell me if she was hurt anyway."
North Tama went on to win the point, then got the next three to take the match.
"We like making plays like that, playing defense," Halstead said. "We play a really tough schedule so we are used to having to make those kind of plays. I was stressing, but I'm used to having to stress like that."
The Redhawks will be playing in the semifinals for the third time, but for the first time since the tournament moved here from Cedar Rapids.
"North Tama has never been to the final, so that is our next goal," Halstead said.
Kruiz Elwoldt led the winners with 15 kills. Addison Hochstetler had 23 digs.
For Sidney (22-10) Keyana Haggerty and Alyssa Melvin had seven kills each.
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