Comets burn bright early
Charles City undefeated in pool play before losing bracket opener at Cedar Falls Volleyball Invitational
Charles City’s Kelsi Crooks makes a block as teammate Sydneyt Loeckle looks on during the Comets’ championship bracket match against Dowling Catholic.
By John Burbridge
sports@charlescitypress.com
CEDAR FALLS — Morning people can be insufferable.
But last Saturday morning at the Cedar Falls Tiger Volleyball Invitational, the Charles City Comets were indomitable.
“We had a great morning,” Charles City coach Sue Hoefer said of her team going undefeated while dropping only one set to win its pool.
“We were able to beat a very good Janesville team,” Hoefer said of the Comets’ straight-set 21-19, 21-14 win over the Wildcats. Other pool-play victories included a 21-18 win over Waukee and a strong finish Waukee (21-23, 21-6, 15-10).
“We played with a lot of energy,” Hoefer said.
In the first round of the championship bracket, Charles City drew Dowling Catholic, which placed second in its pool — the top two teams from each four-team pool advanced to the championship bracket; the lower two were sent to the consolation bracket.
After trailing 10-7 in the first set, the Comets seized control and won 25-20. Dowling Catholic came back to win the second set (25-21), forcing a third.
In a tie-breaking set up to 15, the Comets got in trouble when they spotted Dowling Catholic three points on service errors and were burned two other times when allowing DC serves to fail in for aces in hopes they would land long of the back line.
As a result, the Comets couldn’t right the ship in time which allowed Dowling Catholic to advance to the semifinal by way of a 15-10 score.
“The girls just seemed to run out of gas at the end,” Hoefer said. “All we can do now is regroup and get ready to host Waverly-Shell Rock on Tuesday.
While going 3-1 at the invitational, the Comets are now 14-3 for the season.
During the day at the invitational, Sydney Loeckle had 64 assists, Katie Foster had 24 kills, Tayler Schmidt had 29 digs and Jodie Sindlinger had 5 blocks for Charles City.
Dowling Catholic eventually advanced to the finals, where it lost to Cedar Falls 25-18, 25-18.
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