“Take it off!” yelled City High student section as the girls volleyball team scored their first point of the season.

The Little Hawks started off their regular season with a home game against the Cedar Rapids Washington Warriors. The Little Hawks were solid throughout all three sets winning 25-9,25-19, and 25-14. Sweeping the Warriors 3-0 in the season opener.

“We had a lot of good things happen tonight,” said head coach, Craig Pitcher, “We tried a lot of different things early this season as opposed to last season due to the loss of some seniors and that seemed to help us out pretty well”

Juniors , Alexa Ingram ‘17, and co-captain, Shannon Stamp ‘17, both played a big part in tonight’s game Ingram led the team in kills with a total of 14, while also picking up 11 assist and had an 80% serve efficiency. Stamp led the team in serves with a total of 15 while maintaining a 100% serve efficiency and also picked up five digs and six kills.

“It felt awesome coming home with a win for the season opener,” said Ingram, “the team has been working really hard in practice and all we wanted was to get a win”

Senior, Ashley Smith ‘16, captained the Little Hawks as a libero for tonight’s game. Smith played all three sets and led the team in digs with a total of 18.

“After tonight’s game, I am very proud of how we played as a whole,” said Smith, “as the captain of the team I can have no complaints about how well we played tonight after all the hard work we’ve been putting in,”

Being the only senior on the team has also played a big part in Smith’s role on the team.

“From watching the seniors from last year lead us to state, it gave be a good base to start on as the captain,” said Smith, “I’m learning every step to becoming a big leader for the team and I just want to be a big role model for all the players younger than me as well”

However, even after the win, Pitcher believes that there is still always room for improvement before next week’s game against West.

“After tonight’s win, there were definitely a lot more plusses than minuses the whole night,” said Pitcher, “the only thing I can really point out is focusing more, because after a big win in the first set it was a lot tighter during that 2nd set that there was a little drop of intensity”

The Little Hawks will play their next regular season game away against the trojans at West High on August 8th.

“Tonight’s win really gave us a chance to play to our full potential,” said Smith, “I’m not really disappointed in anything with it being the first game of the season, but that gives us time to improve and get ready for our game against West next week”