Comets defeat Oelwein, 3-1, on Senior Night

By John Burbridge sports@charlescitypress.com

CHARLES CITY — Recently, the Oelwein Huskies and their fans have been treated to a past and present tour of the sprawling Charles City Middle School/High School complex.

On Saturday during the Charles City Volleyball Tournament, Oelwein played the hosting Comets in the old high school gym.

On Tuesday during a regular-season Northeast Iowa Conference match, the Huskies faced the Comets in the newer competition gym.

Though one gym has a more state-of-the-art scoreboard, it was basically the same result with the Comets winning on both occasions.

The most recent 3-1 match victory consisting of scores of 25-11, 25-20, 18-25 and 25-16 improved Charles City’s record to 16-10 and 4-1 in the NEIC.

Oelwein fell to 13-18 and 2-3.

In the first game, Sydney Loeckle assisted a pair of kills by Jodie Sindlinger to help the Comets go up 8-2. Three subsequent aces by Sami Heyer put CC up 22-9 before Tayler Schmidt’s kill closed the first game.

A series of blocking kills by Bailee Bortz helped the Comets go up 18-14 in the second game after the Huskies tied it at 13.

Huskies Drew Becker and Amber Rosenstiel got into a good hitting rhythm in the third game, helping Oelwein go up 17-10 before forcing a fourth game.

But you got the feeling that the Comets were not to be denied when Jennifer Martin assisted a humbling hitting kill by Schmidt that can best be described as a “facial” with an unfortunate Husky player taking it off her chin.

That gave the Comets a 21-11 lead.

It was senior night for the Comets as Bortz, Loeckle, Schmidt, Makayla Nierling, Payton Reams, Sadie Ruzicka and Emma Williams were honored before the varsity match.