D-NH volleyball settles in for quarterfinal sweep

CORALVILLE – Dike-New Hartford volleyball had to re-establish itself on Tuesday afternoon.

Carroll Kuemper showed some fight in the first set of a Class 2A quarterfinal, but D-NH closed out that set and then asserted their typical dominance in the next two sets of a sweep of the Knights at Xtream Arena in Coralville.

D-NH won 25-20, 25-11, 25-14. The Wolverines (43-2) advance to the semifinals against Hinton (27-2) at 4 p.m. on Wednesday.

D-NH led 21-8 in that first set, but Kuemper went on a 10-1 run to close within four points. A couple Knight errors put the Wolverines at set point, and after Kuemper broke that twice, Payton Petersen slammed the set-winner.

“Kuemper put up a great finish in that first set,” Harms said. “We had to come out and re-establish ourselves in the second set, just close out.”

D-NH jumped ahead 12-3 in set two and 16-5 in set three to set the tone for the sweep to come.

Payton Petersen finished with 15 kills and 10 digs; Jadyn Petersen had six kills, eight digs and four ace serves and Ellie Knock led D-NH’s block with six total blocks, including one solo stuff.

“We wanted to make sure that we had our block solid and be aware of their hitters,” Harms said. “The girls did a very good job of that and we served well, keeping them off balance so they weren’t able to use their middles.”

The Wolverines were certainly very used to the old home of the state tournament in Cedar Rapids at the Alliant Energy PowerHouse, but the new digs in Coralville had that new sheen.

“This is way different than last year,” said senior Sophia Folkerts. “But, the lights are a little bit brighter, there may be more flashes from pictures, but it’s still a volleyball court.”