OTTUMWA, IA – Indian Hills ran its current win streak to an even ten games last night with a four-set victory over visiting Mineral Area, 25-9, 22-25, 25-16 and 25-18.

The second victory of the win streak also came against the same Cards squad back on February 20 when the run of ten consecutive began on the second day of the Blue Dragon Classic in Hutchinson, Kansas.  The Warriors had just come off their fifth loss in the first six outings to start the season.  At that juncture, many may have thought a long win streak wasn't on the horizon, but don't count IHCC Head Coach Lyndsey Michel as one of those in that camp.

"It took us a handful of games to figure each other out," Michel said.  "We made some changes that day and I knew we were going to have success with it.  We should have been doing this from the git-go, so in my mind, it's too bad this isn't sixteen in a row, but the girls have really put things together."

The Warriors, who also took a 3-1 victory over Mineral Area in the initial meeting, seemed intent on sending a message to the visitors in the opening set Thursday in running out to a sixteen point victory.

"That first set was insane," Michel said. "But, then we went from being the aggressive server and dominating to getting out of whack and our receiving was a little bit flat."

The flat play that Michel spoke of proved that the momentum that was earned in the opening stanza was certainly fickle as Mineral Area drew even with a 25-22 victory in set two.

"I told the girls that if they were the more aggressive serving team tonight, they would win," Michel said.  "Our serving gave us an opportunity because it got them out of system.  We were able to build on their sloppy play and execute.  We're pretty good out of system."

That proved to be true for the remainder of the evening as the Warriors took nine and seven-point wins in the third and fourth sets to run their record to 11-5.  The struggles that IHCC has had with service errors of late stayed at bay against the Cards as the Warriors had just three errant serves, a drastic improvement on the 11 that piled up in the previous outing against Kirkwood on Tuesday night.

"I hope we can continue to tighten that area up and keep our focus," Michel added.  "This is getting down to the nitty gritty with just four games left before postseason.  We'll play Mineral Area again.  We'll play Jefferson College again, and these are teams that we will have to see in order for us to make it to the national tournament.  We still have things to keep working on, but games like this show us that we're doing alright."

Jenna Vallee led the Warriors at the net with 16 kills while adding 13 digs.  Precious Daley contributed 15 kills and Gabriela Cavalcante Oliveria chipped in 11.  Oliveria also added 15 digs and was a perfect 24-for-24 from the service stripe including a pair of aces.  Jarolin de los Santos had 9 kills and 3 blocks.

Cassia Lemos continued her steady play with 51 assists and 22 digs.  Libero Anja Vranic led the team in digs with 26, while both Bailea Yahnke and Jentry Schafer had flawless serving performances going 18-of-18 and 16-of-16, respectively. Yahnke added 16 digs.

Indian Hills will close out the home portion of its 2021 regular season schedule Sunday afternoon when the Warriors host NIACC for a 1 p.m. ICCAC battle.  The team will honor three sophomores as part of a Sophomore Day celebration.  Oliveira, Yahnke and Lemos will take the Hellyer Center floor in a Warrior uniform for the final time.