CORALVILLE — Less than 24 hours before the Iowa high school volleyball state quarterfinals, Waukee Northwest head coach Jodi Vogt sent a picture of a lion to her players.
It served as a reminder: the king, or queen, of the jungle doesn’t get distracted, and a lion focuses on its goal. She wanted her team to remember that they were here to win three matches, not just one.
The Wolves moved closer to that goal on Monday, Nov. 3, sweeping Indianola in three sets to advance to the Class 5A semifinals. And if there were distractions for Northwest, the Wolves wasted little time refocusing on what mattered.
“I could see that they had to settle in a little bit,” Vogt said after the victory. “The nice thing is, they worked themselves out of it really quickly, and they maintain that composure, even when they’re a little rattled.”
In the first set, Indianola came out swinging, scoring first and climbing to a 13-7 lead before Northwest took a timeout. The Wolves exited that break renewed, and they outscored their opponent, 9-2, to take a one-point lead.
The surge from Northwest forced Indianola to take a timeout of its own, but by then the Wolves had found their rhythm. Northwest scored nine points to Indianola’s two after the timeout and eased to a 25-17 victory in the first set.
Indianola again scored first. Madison Grover’s attack went off the hand of Avery Vogt and an attack from Northwest junior Piper Ladwig landed out of bounds. But the Wolves didn’t trail for long, and Northwest earned a 25-16 win in the second set.
For the third straight set, Indianola scored first. The Wolves were unfazed, and they rattled off five straight points – off two kills, two attack errors by their opponent, and a well-placed block from Cassidy Danburg and Ladwig – before Indianola got another.
“We work on blocking every day,” Jodi Vogt said. “It’s the first line of defense, so it’s the first thing that can score us a point.”
The Wolves dominated through the end of the set, building a lead that proved impossible to eliminate. Northwest showed no signs of slowing down as they took down Indianola, 25-12, in set three.
Leah Janulewicz led the Wolves with 14 kills; Avery Cordes came up second with nine. Cordes, Danburg and Ladwig maintained the first line of defense well, with five blocks apiece. Avery Vogt set her teammates up for success, literally, with 33 assists against Indianola.
“I think a lot of people don’t understand how many weapons we have on our team,” Jodi Vogt said. “Like this is a true team, we can count on any one of these girls to show up and play their game. What’s so fun about them is they’re so unselfish and so excited for their teammates.
“That’s been our focus all season: to not make it about me but make it about the team.”
Alyssa Hertel is the college sports recruiting reporter for the Des Moines Register. Contact Alyssa at ahertel@dmreg.com or on Twitter @AlyssaHertel.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Waukee Northwest sweeps Indianola in Iowa high school volleyball state quarterfinals
Reporting by Alyssa Hertel, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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