OTTUMWA, IA – Indian Hills kept its recent hot streak alive Tuesday night with its third consecutive straight-sets victory, and sixth straight win overall with a 25-8, 25-11, 25-10 sweep over visiting Marshalltown in the Hellyer Center.
Marshalltown, which has had its schedule altered as much as anyone during the pandemic, had only been on the court three times previously this season, all losses, and had just six players in uniform for the ICCAC matchup.
The Warriors showed little mercy, however, in collecting its fifth conference win in eight outings as IHCC continues to rebound nicely from its 1-5 start to the season.
Indian Hills sent a message early that there would be no let up as the Warriors ran out to a 12-1 lead in the first set. IHCC wouldn't let the Tigers up off the mat despite a few service errors and eventually took the 17-point win to go up 1-0.
"Overall on the evening, we had seven missed serves," said IHCC Head Coach Lyndsey Michel. "So, while we're happy with the win, it's important to keep our focus on the little things, no matter what the score is."
Marshalltown captured its only lead the entire evening at the start of the second stanza when the Tigers held a brief advantage at 1-0. Indian Hills would run off nine straight to grab a stranglehold on the set as MCC had dug another hole it was unable to recover from as the Warriors snatched set two, 25-11.
Even giving extended rest to IHCC's leading attacker Gabriela Cavalcante Oliveira didn't slow the Warriors in set three as a 15-point win sent the Tigers home with their fourth loss in as many outings.
"Even Gabby's good knee is starting to bother her a little bit," Michel said. "So, tonight ended up being a good time to give her some rest, and keep her off of it."
Jenna Vallee led the team in kills with 11, followed by seven from Zara McCauley, who was the primary beneficiary of Oliveira's rest.
"Zara did a great job tonight. She really stepped up," Michel added. "It was a good pace for her to get in, and to our team's credit, they didn't back down. We're used to Gabby being back there setting the ball, but tonight we continued running our offense with Zara, and she handled things really well."
Anja Vranic led the team with 10 digs, while Cassia Lemos had a team-high 19 assists, followed by Hennsys Lalane with 12. Jentry Schafer and Precious Daley each added 6 kills to the Warriors' cause, while Jarolin de los Santos chipped in with four kills and two blocks.
"Precious is continuing to emerge for us," Michel added. "She's a beast. She gets up, hits high, hits hard and around the block."
The Warriors enter a stretch of nine contests in the next 18 days, where they will have to get used to a one-day-on, one-day-off rhythm. The next IHCC battle isn't until Friday at home against Jefferson College; however, giving Coach Michel a luxury that will be hard to find over the next 2 ½ weeks… an extra day of preparation.
"Wednesday will be our only day where we aren't playing off just one day's rest for quite a while," Michel said. "We've got some girls with some aches and pains, so we're going to take care of our bodies, get some film of Jefferson, and get ready for another scrappy team on Friday. We'll give the girls a good day on Wednesday and then work hard on Thursday."
IHCC (7-5) will square off with Jefferson (5-7) at 5 p.m. from the Hellyer Center on Friday. The Warriors expect to see the return of Andressa Borges to the lineup after she's been nursing an ankle injury. The freshman outside hitter has been on the shelf since a loss to Iowa Western back on February 2.