Hawks stay winless in SEISC play

DONNELLSON – Senior night at Central Lee High School went a little quicker than hoped on Tuesday night.
But it wasn’t without a little pregame celebration and a nod to a teammate lost.
The Central Lee Lady Hawks have been wearing a patch for Kodi Moeller on their warm-up jackets this year that says, “Love Like Kodi”. Moeller was killed in a motor vehicle accident earlier this year.
The love crept in, however, as students made small speeches to the three seniors who were honored in their last season as Lady Hawks volleyball players.
Brooklyn Jones, Makayla Howard, and Josie Newton all were in the starting rotation for the Hawks in their final home match of the year against Burlington Notre Dame.
The Hawks fell 25-18, 25-16, 25-16 to the Nikes and fell to 0-7 in Southeast Iowa Superconference action, with regional action next on the plate at No. 11 Solon in the Class 3A Region 8 quarterfinals Tuesday.
Head Coach Amy Cook said the Lady Hawks are competitive in almost every match they play, but the girls are just losing their way for several points.
“I feel for the most part, we are right there with the people we are playing,” Cook said. “A lot of our (issue) is the mental game and we just don’t finish. That definitely did happen tonight. We were digging the ball really well, but then we just weren’t finishing.”
The Hawks weren’t really even in the first set until a 5-1 run at 12-23 staved off a quick Nike first-set win. The Hawks pushed back to a 17-24 deficit after getting some strong offensive and defensive play from Taylor Jones and Lila Sheppard in the run. Sheppard had back-to-back kills in from the Hawks' left side of the rotation to get Central Lee to 17 points. Jones had consecutive blocks on Notre Dame’s Aviana West who was working hard from the Nike left side of the offense. But a kill from the middle ended the rally.
Central Lee held small leads at the front end of the second and third sets, but Notre Dame would rally in both sets at about the midway point and run away with the wins in the last two sets.
Cook said the Lady Hawks talked briefly about the upcoming regionals in the locker room after the game.
“We really just try to focus on the next game. But we know Solon is very good, so that’s a tough start (to the regionals),” she said.
She also said she appreciated what the seniors brought to the program.
“You know, they’re just great kids, to be totally honest with you,” Cook said.
“They all bring their own thing to the team, they have drive, and they really do want to win.”
Jones led the Hawks with 16 kills on the night. She was also 12 of 12 serving. Ellie Lake had 19 assists on the night and Jayden Mueller had 30 digs on defense for Central Lee.