Aug. 27 win in three over John Wood CC
The Kirkwood Eagles Volleyball program won its home-opener Wednesday night in Cedar Rapids. First-year player Julia Brus was impressive in the opening home match. Brus had 10 kills, hit .466 and blocked five as the Eagles downed John Wood Community College from Quincy, Ill.– 25-15, 25-14, 25-13.
“Julia has amazing arm speed,” Head Coach Jill Williams said afterward. “She did some solid things out there and didn’t play like a freshman.”
Williams also noted an “awesome crowd in attendance,” credited in part to a popular tailgate cookout event sponsored by Kirkwood Student Life.
First-year outside hitter Kamille Van Natta also played an outstanding match at the net; she followed with seven kills while hitting .384 as Kirkwood out-hit John Wood on the night. Kirkwood used a 6-2 system using both freshman setters Tess Wegner (12 assists) and Ellie Farrier (10 assists). The two were instrumental in getting the middles involved, and distributing a good offensive flow as MB sophomore Katie Johnson added another 4 kills, Opposite Hitter Rachel Walker and Outside Hitter Heather Brus added five kills each.
Kirkwood added to their cause by scoring points on ace serves from J. Brus (4), Van Natta (3) and Tomomi Sakurai (2). Defensively, Fr. Heather Brus and So. Libero Beth Ripperger paced Kirkwood with six and 5 digs, while Deidre Schaefer had three of the Eagles’ eleven blocks.
“This home opening match win should definitely help our confidence level going into the Iowa Lakes Labor Day Tournament,” Williams said. “We match up right away with the host school, Iowa Lakes and will then follow up with another conference foe, Iowa Central later Friday evening. In preparation for this weekend we know we will have to play better volleyball and that’s what it’s all about – lifting our level of play.”
Kirkwood is 3-5 overall going into the weekend.