Wildcats Sweep Riverdale to begin season

  DURANT — The Durant volleyball team won their 2018 season opener with a victory at home last Thursday against Riverdale, a school from Illinois. It is the first time the two schools have played an in-season match. Riverdale is similar in school size to Durant and in the TRAC - Tri-Rivers Athletic Conference. Durant swept Riverdale in three sets to improve to 1-0 on the season.

  The win was the first for new Durant coach Mark Lau.

  “We wanted to control the tempo and emotion of the match, and except for the beginning of the third game, we did just that. Our serving won us the match, averaging just under 3 aces/game, but more importantly was how we able to not allow Riverdale to set their best hitters by being very tactical with our serves,” said Lau.

  “Paige Werthmann scored us 8 points off her serve in two games, and Kamryn Meyer scored 7 in 1 game, with multiple others scoring 4+ per game. It's really hard to beat a team that is firing heat at you all night,” he said.

  The Wildcats won their third straight season opener with the victory. Durant opened the 2017 season with a win over Mid-Prairie and opened the 2016 season with a victory over Wilton. The Wildcats lost to West Liberty to begin the 2015 season.

  “Our goal was to play together. The winning and losing will take care of themselves when we play together. We handled the early in the night shot of adrenaline that can dismantle some teams. I wanted to see how would we respond to the challenge of playing at home, against a new opponent, with a new head coach and everything else that could be running through their minds. These young women made their community proud,” said Lau.

  The two teams would play close sets in the first and third, but Durant would prevail. Durant won the first set 25-20 to take a 1-0 match lead. The Wildcats followed that up with a second set win, 25-14 to take a 2-0 match lead. Riverdale played the Wildcats as close as any set in the third set, scoring 23 points, but Durant came out on top with a 25-23 win to sweep the match 3-0.

  Individually, Durant returns their top kill, assist and dig leaders from last year in Kamryn Meyer, Ruby Kappeler, and Hannah Happ. Aubrin Dittmer led Durant in kills in the match with 20 on 28 attack attempts. Meyer had 8 kills and Mallory Warner had 7. The Wildcats had 34 kills as a team on 90 attack attempts in the match.

  Kappeler had 22 assists in the match, routinely finding the Wildcat hitters and placing the volleyball in good spots for attacks. Happ led Durant in digs with a team-high 16. Kappeler had 9 as did Dittmer.

  Durant will be back on the court Saturday at the Iowa City, City High Tournament. Durant will play their River Valley Conference opener at home on Thursday, September 6 when they host Class 3A state-ranked Tipton. In another schedule change, the Wildcats will not be playing at the Wilton volleyball tournament on Saturday, September 8.

Durant 3, Riverdale (IL) 0
Tuesday, August 21
At Durant

Durant 25 25 25
Riverdale 20 14 23

Durant Statistics:
Attacks (70-for-90 34 kills): Aubrin Dittmer 22-for-28 20 kills, Mallory Warner 12-for-16 7 kills, Kamryn Meyer 10-for-14 8 kills, Annie Taylor 10-for-11 5 kills, Ruby Kappeler 8-for-8 2 kills, Jada Rock 3-for-5 1 kill, Kira Schult 3-for-4, Paige Werthmann 2-for-4 1 kill.
Serving (62-for-73 8 aces): Paige Werthmann 10-for-12 2 aces, Aubrin Dittmer 10-for-11, Meg Koenig 9-for-10, Hannah Happ 7-for-9, Ruby Kappeler 8-for-8 1 ace, Jada Rock 3-for-4 2 aces, Kamryn Meyer 3-for-3 1 ace, Gabrielle Olsen 2-for-2 1 ace, Kira Schult 2-for-2, Mallory Warner 2-for-2.
Assists (28): Ruby Kappeler 22, Meg Koenig 4, Hannah Happ 2.
Blocks (14): Mallory Warner 7, Aubrin Dittmer 3, Kamryn Meyer 2, Annie Taylor 1, Pagie Werthmann 1.
Digs (47): Hannah Happ 16, Ruby Kappeler 9, Aubrin Dittmer 9, Paige Werthmann 3, Kira Schult 2, Jada Rock 2, Annie Taylor 2, Kamryn Meyer 2, Meg Koenig 2.