Strong serving carries Newark past IMSA

Newark’s volleyball team kicked off a busy final week of the regular season Monday, rolling to a 25-13, 25-18 non-conference victory at Illinois Math & Science Academy.

“We’re at (Kirkland) Hiawatha (Tuesday), at Dwight on Thursday and then go up to Stillman Valley on Saturday for a 12-team tournament,” said Norseman coach Tonya Nagel, whose team climbed to 19-7 on the season.

Newark, which is seeded first in the Streator Woodland Class 1A Regional the following week, had little trouble with the Titans despite missing one starter. Sophomore right side Nicole Lawrence suffered a foot injury last weekend on a team retreat that included a trip to Champaign, where Newark’s players watched the No. 1-ranked and undefeated University of Illinois eke out a five-set win over Michigan State.

“She should be back later in the week,” Nagel said.

Behind the strong jump serve of junior setter Lauren Tollefson, the visitors jumped to a 9-0 lead in the opening set and cruised. Tollefson, who had 12 assists in the match, had three straight aces in the early run and Newark finished with 11 for the match.

IMSA, missing coach Linsey Crowninshield (flu), finally got on the board with a kill from sophomore Kourtney Hodges. The 4-16 Titans, though, struggled all night with serve receive and passing and were unable to mount much of an offense except for the tandem of senior middle blocker Michaela Edgers and setter Rebecca Wu.

Edgers had six kills and a block, and the Titans stayed close in the early going in the second set. They trailed just 7-6 but a serving error followed by a six-point run off the serve of senior Ashley Edwards staked Newark to a 14-6 lead. Edwards had three aces in the run, and the hosts could get no closer than five (23-18) the rest of the way.

“We were pretty clean and had only four attack errors in that first set,” Nagel said. “We did have a few service errors (3) in the second set.”

Akre finished with a team-high six kills, three blocks and also had three aces. Taylor Krug added five kills and two blocks and Tollefson added a pair of kills.

Junior Tyler Taylor had three blocks and one kill for IMSA, which has just one senior on the roster.

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