TRAER – In a battle between top-10 teams in Class 1A volleyball, No. 2 North Tama (now No. 3) defeated No. 7 BCLUW by a 3-2 margin in last Thursday’s (Sept. 11) Iowa Star Conference South Division showdown.

The host Redhawks held off the Comets 25-27, 25-23, 25-15, 20-25, 15-10, scoring the last four points of the night to put away the win.

Freshman Alaney Sienknecht led the Redhawks (11-6, 3-0) with 19 kills. Cayleigh Heller had 14 kills, Kruiz Ewoldt had 12 and Lily Sell 10. Setters Isabelle Gropper and Heller finished with 22 and 12 assists, respectively.

Senior libero Addison Hochstetler led the North Tama defense with 28 digs as well as eight assists, and Sienknecht tallied 17 digs. Brooke Bradley led up front with six blocks, Sienknecht had five and Heller four.

Hochstetler served 23-for-25 with three of the team’s 13 aces.

BCLUW (9-1, 1-1) got 16 kills from Olivia Peters and 12 more by Grace Farnsworth. Sophomore setter Cambria Wayman tallied 29 assists and Sally Ramirez had 10 more.

Junior libero Brinna Benson led the Comet defense with 23 digs, Peters had 18 and Cambria 17. Peters and Kylie Pekarek had two blocks each.

BCLUW served at 95.8 percent with six aces, led by Peters going 21-for-21 with two aces.