Comets upset Chickasaws, go 3-3 at NEIC VB Tournament

By John Burbridge sports@charlescitypress.com

DECORAH — When David defeated Goliath, there wasn’t another giant waiting to step into the ring with him.

But that’s what it was like for the Charles City Comets during the afternoon round of Saturday’s Northeast Iowa Conference Volleyball Tournament at Decorah High School.

In the morning round, the Comets went 2-1 with straight set wins over Decorah (21-15, 21-9) and Oelwein (21-19, 21-15).

To open up the latter round, the Comets faced New Hampton’s upstart program, which began the season with 25-straight match victories and was likely going to be Waverly-Shell Rock’s toughest challenge in the quest for the tourney title.

In the first set, the Comets came out on fire and took a 7-1 lead. New Hampton eventually caught them at 10 and soon after got within 1 point of winning (20-14) before the Comets rolled off eighth-straight points to win the set.

New Hampton bounced back in the second set (21-16) before taking a 4-2 lead in the deciding set up to 15.

With one of their best blocking displays of the season, Charles City eventually took a 12-8 lead before the Chickasaws caught the Comets at 13. But Charles City scored the final two points of the match with senior Jodie Sindlinger’s kill assisted by Jennifer Martin sealing the deal.

Watching the latter half of the match were the Comets’ next opponent — W-SR, the NEIC regular-season champs with a perfect 9-0 conference record.

Like they did against the Chickasaws, Charles City played one of their best matches of the season against the Go-Hawks, but the latter team was too big and too strong, and was able to hold off the game Comets while winning in straight sets despite the loss of imposing outside hitter Jaz Westmoreland, who hit her head on the floor while attempting to make a diving save.

Though the Comets did the Go-Hawks a favor while playing spoiler against the Chickasaws, Waverly-Shell Rock still had to take care of its own business by beating New Hampton itself to clinch the tourney title. And that’s what the Class 4A No. 7-ranked Go-Hawks did, winning in straight sets (21-15, 21-17).

Meanwhile, Charles City lost in straight sets to Crestwood in the final match of the tourney.

The Comets finished with a 3-3 record and a fourth-place showing behind champs W-SR, runner-up New Hampton and third-place finisher Waukon.

Charles City will begin the Class 4A regional first round by hosting Decorah 7 p.m. Wednesday in Comet Gym.