Author: Nathan Bloechl

KILJ — It’s a quieter Thursday night in the area in terms of volleyball as teams get set for their postseason surge.

Mediapolis will host a rather talented quad tonight with 3A No. 11 Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont and 1A No. 5 Holy Trinity making the trip.

Fort Madison will also be competing tonight, as well.

Holy Trinity will look to bounce back after succumbing in upset fashion to Central Lee earlier this week.

The quad slate will get underway at 5:00 p.m.

Elsewhere tonight, West Burlington — No. 9 in 3A — will try to get the ship righted following a sweep loss to Notre Dame.

Tonight the Lady Falcons will hook up with Fairfield — Mount Pleasant’s first round opponent next week.

Other matchups tonight:

• Van Buren County at Danville
• Wapello at Lone Tree
• Columbus at Washington

Iowa City — Wrestling will meet baseball in a one-of-a-kind event at Globe Life Field as the No. 3 Oklahoma State Cowboys face the top-ranked Iowa Hawkeyes in one of the most storied rivalries in college wrestling on February 12, 2022.

Bout at the Ballpark will feature dual-match action between OSU and Iowa as well as the senior national teams from the United States and Iran. Competition will begin simultaneously as bouts will alternate throughout the event on two different mats. It will be the first time a senior-level international meet and an NCAA meet will operate in this format.

Iowa, the reigning national team and Big Ten champion, carries 85 individual titles among its 55 NCAA champions, including seven three-time and 16 two-time winners. The Hawkeyes hold 117 Big Ten crowns and have combined for a total of 207 conference titles.

Tickets for the event will go on sale today at texasrangers.com/wrestling.

KILJ — Iowa center Tyler Linderbaum and Iowa State linebacker Mike Rose are two of 12 semifinalists for this year’s Rotary Lombardi Award.

The semifinalist selections were announced Wednesday.

Rose, last year’s Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year, is currently fourth in the BIG 12 in tackles for loss and is second on the team in tackles per game at just under seven per game.

Linderbaum has made 27 consecutive starts for the Hawkeyes while being named a first team All-Big Ten and All-American.

He was also named to the watch list for the Rimington and Outland Trophies.

Four finalists will be selected by November 9th, with the winner being announced on December 8th.

No. 1 Notre Dame 3, No. 9 (3A) West Burlington 0 

Class 1A’s top-ranked Notre Dame rolled to 25-12, 25-13 and 25-22 wins over West Burlington, sweeping the ninth-ranked Lady Falcons in the match of the year in southeast Iowa.

The sweep for the Nikes crowned them Super Conference South Division champions.

Josie Bentz paced the Notre Dame offense with 13 kills while Gabby Deery finished with 12.

Jenna Bentz had 32 assists and Megan Harrell had 10 blocks, as the Nikes had it all working.

McKenna Marlow had five kills for the Lady Falcons.

The win closes Notre Dame’s regular season at 33-8, they’ll be off until next Wednesday when they battle the winner of Lone Tree and English Valleys in a Class 1A second round scrap.

West Burlington, now 27-3, will take on Fairfield Thursday night.

Mount Pleasant Wins SEC Crown

The Mount Pleasant volleyball team went 4-1 over the two day Southeast Conference tournament, clinching the Southeast Conference crown officially last night.

The Panthers picked up a three set win over Keokuk before falling to Fairfield — their first round playoff opponent — in three sets.

That will be Mount Pleasant’s next matchup, set for October 19th, at Fairfield.

Match time is set for 7:00 p.m.

Central Lee 3, No. 5 Holy Trinity 1

Meghan Hopp drilled 23 kills as Central Lee snake bit Holy Trinity in a four-set upset win.

The Hawks earned 25-20, 25-18 wins to start the night before the Crusaders got hot for a 25-13 win in set three.

Set four proved to be all Central Lee with the Hawks punching for a 25-15 win.

Makala Morrison added 18 kills and 23 digs for Central Lee, in a robust effort.

Central Lee, now 16-10, has all the confidence before their Class 3A Region Quarterfinal tilt with No. 9 West Burlington next Monday.

Holy Trinity, who slipped to 32-8, will try to sharpen the knife Thursday in the Mediapolis tournament.

Winfield-Mount Union 3, Mediapolis 0 

Per usual, Winfield-Mount Union used a balanced attack to ride past Mediapolis 3-0 last night in a Super Conference showdown in Winfield.

Bradie Buffingotn had eight kills while Melina Oepping added seven to go along with two blocks.

Lexie Arnold led the Bullettes with eight kills.

Winfield-Mount Union closed it’s regular season at 20-10.

Mediapolis fell to 11-21.

WACO 3, Van Buren County 0 

WACO got into the 20 win mark, as they swept Van Buren County last night in Wayland.

Ellah Kissell led the Warriors’ front with 11 kills, Marie Farmer chipped in with seven.

Grace Coble provided the service with 20 assists.

WACO is now 20-12, Van Buren County dropped to 10-17.

KILJ — The Iowa Association of Track Coaches has released the upcoming state qualifying sites for all classes.

The announcements were made yesterday.

In Class 1A, Columbus, Highland, Hillcrest, Winfield-Mount Union, WACO and Holy Trinity will be traveling to Iowa City Regina.

Race day is set for Thursday, October 21st.

In Class 2A, the machine that is Danville-New London will be at Anamosa. Joining them there will be Louisa-Muscatine and Mediapolis, among others.

Central Lee will go to Williamsburg along with Cardinal.

Class 3A is much more cut and dry, with Mount Pleasant and Washington both traveling to Solon. West Burlington Notre Dame will be in Solon as well, with Keokuk and Fort Madison also joining in on the fun.

Iowa City — University of Iowa senior defensive back Matt Hankins has been named Big Ten Co-Defensive Player of the Week.

The announcement was made yesterday by the Big Ten Conference office.

Hankins was credited with five tackles in Iowa’s win over Penn State, including three solo stops and two assists, along with Iowa’s fourth and final interception of the day.

A native of Lewisville, Texas, Hankins has started 22 consecutive games and has 33 career starts.

The weekly honor is the first for Hankins, who becomes the fourth Hawkeye to earn conference accolades this season.

Iowa will celebrate their homecoming this Saturday when they play host to Purdue.

Kick is set for 2:30 p.m.

KILJ — The University of Minnesota Duluth men’s basketball team has hired former Mount Pleasant standout Jordan Ashton as an assistant coach for the upcoming 2021-22 season.

Ashton’s playing experience playing experience includes stops at Northwest Missouri State (2012-2014), Kirkwood Community College (2014-2015), Iowa State (2015-2016), and Northern Iowa (2016-2017). Ashton was awarded first team All-American during his time at Kirkwood Community College.

Most recently the top lieutenant for Alex Huisman at Iowa Wesleyan, Ashton helped guide the Tigers to 71.1 points per game.

Duluth opens their season November 12th against the University of Nebraska-Kearney.