VOLLEYBALL PREVIEW
The North Iowa Cedar League will once again be a showcase of some of the best volleyball in the state, regardless of class, as action is served up with the start of the fall season this week.
Grundy Center and Dike-New Hartford are neighbors in the 2A preseason rankings from the IGHSAU at #5 and #6, respectively, and Gladbrook-Reinbeck clocks in at #10 in Class 1A. The NICL accounts for nine of the top 15 teams in Class 2A in all, including top-ranked Denver, the defending champions.
“It’s great to be in one of the best conferences in the state, where we continue to make everyone better,” Grundy Center head coach Lori Willis said.
Grundy Center returns eight regular contributors from last year’s regional finalist team, led statistically by 6-foot-8 junior Ryanne Brubaker, a fourth-team all-state selection in 2A last season after accumulating 332 kills at a .416 efficiency as well as 85 blocks in her sophomore season.
“We’re looking for her to continue to be up and available so we can utilize her,” Willis said. “We want her to work on being more consistent blocking; she can take away an incredible amount of court where we can play great defense on that, and then also get her in transition quicker where we can use her on offense a little bit more, especially to score out of the middle in transition.”
Co-captains and seniors Lauren Zajac and Allison Koch will help provide the experienced leadership as multi-sport standouts. Zajac and junior teammate Caturella Brown contributed over 800 combined assists last year and will be a key component in the Spartans’ focus on improved ball control this season.
“Lauren’s our vocal leader, the energy starter, the spark plug,” Willis said. “She’s the one communicating what’s going on out there on the court. Allison brings a lot of experience as someone on the team that was at state two years ago. She’s played a wide variety of positions and is just willing to do whatever it takes that the team needs and putting that job ahead of herself – very steady, very sincere and the team respects her.”
Offensively, the Spartans seek to replenish offense from graduates Kayden Muller (194 kills) and Paige Venenga (187); sophomores Jenna Blythe and Trinity Jirovsky will likely see some more workload after each put down 100+ kills last fall.
“We’ve put a lot of focus on our strength and conditioning program where being a better athlete will make you a better ballplayer,” Willis said. “It’s exciting, we’re a year older, we’ve been through the grinder in the NICL, and now it feels like we’re a bigger dog this year and we’ll have a little more bite to go out there and compete, see how many wins we can get this year.”
‘Relentless’ and reloading at D-NH
Dike-New Hartford’s disciplined defense under Hall of Fame head coach Diane Harms allows this consistent contender at the state level to slot right back into the race this fall.
The Wolverines were state semifinalists last year, falling to eventual champs Denver. D-NH seeks to replicate the output from second-team all-staters Shannon Moorman and Izzy Norton who graduated last year; the cupboard is hardly bare with Keely Kauten (199 kills), Aubrey Asche (121 kills), Mallory Petersen (293 digs) and Ruby Varney (411 digs and 32 aces) just some of the faces back on the court, along with senior and co-captain of the team Abby Jensen, who missed most of last season with an ACL injury.
“We get Abby’s experiences from her first two years of leadership and understanding of the game, which will be very helpful,” Harms said.
Jensen, Kauten, Petersen, Rylee Reicks and Kailyn Meester are the only five upperclassmen for Dike-New Hartford, and all five captain the team under the motto, “Play with passion and be relentless.”
“We’re playing hard all the time, playing hard every point,” Harms explained further. “Our strength is our defense, our ability to extend rallies, and then take that offensive opportunity when it presents itself.”
D-NH defeated Denver in conference competition last fall only to be bounced by Wapsie Valley in the quarterfinals of the NICL tournament a week later; the Wolverines battled back at season’s end with three consecutive wins against NICL competition before the Cyclones avenged that loss.
Denver is the favorite to repeat as 2A champions, but any NICL team has the potential to have their night if the time is right.
“We have to be prepared to see the different strengths every team has, it’ll be a difficult job because every team we see is going to be strong,” Harms said.
G-R eager to get back to state
After a couple of heart-wrenching losses in the regional tournament in recent years, experienced leaders at Gladbrook-Reinbeck are hungry to get back to the state tournament for the first time since 2022.
Class 1A third-team all-stater Kennedy Brant and first-team All-NICL West pick Elly Sieh enter their senior seasons on the heels of teaming up for a successful basketball season this past winter that earned the Rebels their first state basketball berth in over 30 years.
Brant and Sieh were on the team that reached the state title game in Xtream Arena in 2022, with Brant seeing playing time at that time.
“Getting back to state is the ultimate goal,” G-R head coach Paula Kelley said. “We’ve got some returning, solid kids coming back, a really good core group, and a lot of kids able to fill in with what we’ve lost last year. We’ve been playing really well and we’re really excited to get started with our matches.”
Rebel setter Kailey Larson is the other part of the returning trifecta for G-R, a key piece to the defensive project that Kelley thinks can separate the Rebels in a battle with the 1A powerhouses from the Iowa Star Conference.
“We just need to come in and not make mistakes,” Kelley said. “Shore up our defense and our passing, which we struggled with last year off and on all season long last year. … The senior class has done a really good job of being communicative with everybody and getting everyone to mesh really well together.”
The Rebels rank behind several Iowa Star teams in the preseason rankings, including #2 North Tama, #4 Janesville, #6 Dunkerton and #8 BCLUW, the latter of which sent the Rebels packing in the regional final last fall.
Between the divisional competition in what Kelley thinks is a wide-open NICL West and the elite battles in the all-in NICL Tournament, the Rebels should be ready for the challenges that await.
“Those experienced girls are going to help bring along our inexperienced kids and by the time we’re at the end of the season, we’ll be ready to go,” Kelley said.
JAKE RYDER SPORTS 