East Mills tops field at Mount Ayr tourney

East Mills shook an early loss to Shenandoah with a win over the Fillies in the championship match of the Mount Ayr Invitational Saturday.

The Wolverines (9-3) won their opening match in pool play over Martendsdale St. Mary’s 21-10, 21-13 before losing 21-19, 15-21, 8-5 to Shenandoah. East Mills would come back to win its next two matches, 21-9, 21-6 over Wayne and 25-9, 25-12 over host Mount Ayr to get the Fillies rematch in the finals.

In the title match, East Mills notched 26 kills while hitting .346 in a 25-20, 25-12 sweep.

Alex Knop pulled the rare double, leading East Mills with 34 kills and 36 digs in the tournament.

Dezirae Drake keyed the offense with 80 set assists. Rachel Drake added 19 kills and Kaylor Horgdal had 15 kills to go with eight aces.

Sidney 25-27-25-25
East Mills 17-29-23-16

In clash of Class 1A ranked teams, Sidney outlasted East Mills 25-17, 27-29, 25-23, 25-16 in Corner Conference volleyball last Tuesday in Sidney.

The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union top rated Cowgirls (13-1)  smashed 55 kills while hitting .261 in the win over the No. 11 ranked Wolverines (5-2). Kelsey Hobbie recorded a match-high 25 kills and Presley Brumbaugh added 13.

East Mills nearly matched the Cowgirls with 51 kills but struggled with its consistency, hitting .174 as a team. Alex Knop led the way with 18 kills and picked up 20 digs. Knop notched her 1,000th career kill in the match.

Rachel Drake added 12 kills.

Dezirae Drake keyed the Wolverine offense with 47 set assists. The senior added 12 digs.