Riverside VB Tops Tri-Center in WIC Battle, 3-1

Riverside's Elly Henderson (9-26-24)

Riverside VB Tops Tri-Center in WIC Battle, 3-1 -

(9-26-24) – They knew it was going to be a dogfight and the Bulldogs were in the state of mind for the challenge.

After falling in the opening set, Riverside would show why they’re the No. 3 team in Class 1A, dominating Tri-Center to earn a 3-1 win over their Western Iowa Conference foes, 14-25, 25-18, 25-9, 25-18.

The Trojans made several spectacular plays in Set 1 to save points and got solid play from Tess Casey to take the early lead. Elly Henderson, who led the Bulldogs with 12 kills said her and her teammates never waivered after losing just their 5th set of the season.

“We have a ‘big dog’ volleyball mindset and we realized that we weren't sticking to what our guns were, So, we flipped that around in the 2nd set and found our ground and shook away those jitters and just came out strong.”

Riverside came out strong in Set 2, running off 6 straight points to start, they then went on a 10pt run to begin Set 3 and just cruised from there.

Set 4 was a back-and-forth contest that saw the Bulldogs pull away with a 5-pt run midway through to secure the conference victory.

Bentley Rone and Sophia Taylor each added 9 kills for Riverside while Tess Casey and Harlie Leaders scored the same to lead Tri-Center.

Henderson says the adjustments she’d been making at the net have been helpful for recent success offensively.

“I've been working on different types of sets that I run. Quicker balls are usually my favorite, but I've realized that I've been too greedy with them and it's not always going to work, so I've been slowing it down and going with higher balls most of the time.”

Riverside’s Ayla Richardson recorded her 500th career dig in the match. Henderson appreciates the effort and leadership her libero brings to the court.

“She's amazing all around. She's done it all. She's hit, set and passed so she knows what she's doing.”

Riverside is now 19-1 on the year and have lofty goals that they’re aiming for this season.

“We've got a taste of greatness right now and we're really excited with it and we want to run with it as far as we can go, so we’re hoping that our end goal will be big. Very big.”

View past scores by visiting the Iowa High School Athletic Association's website, Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union website,
or Iowa Quik Stats