Huskies hit back in 3-1 weekend at Cardinal

After losing to Louisa-Muscatine on Tuesday, the Highland volleyball team entered Saturday’s Cardinal tournament hungry for revenge. They found it in form of a pair of victories over Pekin and a pool play win over the Falcons before losing a three-set bout with L-M in the title game.

“I’m really, really proud of the progress the girls have made,” Highland head coach April Stumpf said.

Highland’s block was dominant throughout the day, generating 57 blocks across the team’s four matches, 18 of which came in the Huskie’s win over Louisa-Muscatine. Junior Kamryn Fink was responsible for 19 of those blocks, providing a dominant force at the net and pushing her to third in class 1A in total blocks.

“Especially against L-M’s outside hitters, me and Alexa [Hahn] had that block sealed, and we were not letting any leakage through our roof,” Fink said.

It was a series of games that the Huskies were particularly hungry for after losing their first bouts of the season to both the Falcons and the Panthers.

“Going into the tournament, we thought that it was our revenge season, as cringy as that sounds,” Fink said. “Pekin and L-M had both beat us, and we went in there mentally ready to beat them back.”

Stumpf was pleased with the response her team had following a 3-1 loss to L-M on Tuesday.

“We worked on a few things that we learned from playing L-M [the first time], things that we weren’t aware of before,” Stumpf said. “Things like reading the hitters, reading the servers, more talking, those are things that we walked away thinking we needed to work on, and we did. Not that we don’t [normally] work on those things in practice, but those were things that stood out to us on why we weren’t able to finish at L-M when we played there.”

With Saturday’s victories, Highland has officially doubled last year’s win total. The Huskies currently sit at 9-12 after a 4-23 finish in 2025. With yet another milestone crossed, their next goal sits before them as they travel to Van Buren County on Thursday for the pool play round of the Southeast Iowa Super Conference Tournament.

Previewing the SEISC Tourney

The Huskies will have their hands full on Thursday with a slate of North division champion Wapello and 3A Mediapolis headlining their pool in the SEISC tournament. Despite the high level of competition, Hahn thinks the Huskies are up to the challenge.

“Now that we’ve proven that we can beat people, we’re just ready to go,” Hahn said.

For Stumpf, Thursday’s games mark an opportunity to reestablish Highland volleyball among the conference’s top contenders.

“We’ve been working our butts off, we’re Highland volleyball, and we’re back,” Stumpf said.

The Huskies will open the tournament against Wapello. The Arrows are led by a three-headed attack of Macey Kuntz, Kyndall Stigge and Emmalin Marshall that will force the Highland block to make quick decisions on where and how to defend. Meanwhile, Mya Wagner is one of the biggest defensive forces in 1A, entering the week third in the class with 248 digs.

Highland will then take on Mediapolis, who swept Highland at the Wilton tournament on September 12. The Bulldogs are a physical team that Stumpf warned her players would punish any weak overpasses. Senior Madden Thie led Mediapolis in the first matchup, leading the team with 6 kills on an efficient .455 hitting percentage.

Highland will finish Thursday taking on pool host Van Buren County. The Warriors are 1-13 entering the conference tournament. Senior Daphny Wells will top Highland’s scout sheet. Wells is tied for the team lead with 50 kills and is by far the team’s most efficient hitter as the only player with a hitting percentage over .100.

First serve for all round one matches is scheduled for 5 p.m.