December 23, 2024

VOLLEYBALL: Laughery named all-POI

By Ryan Stonebraker
Nodaway Valley senior Liv Laughery (in black) lunges for a dig in a volleyball match this season.

Nodaway Valley senior Liv Laughery (in black) lunges for a dig in a volleyball match this season. (Dan Dickinson)

The 2024 Pride of Iowa Conference honors list for the recently-completed volleyball season was released last week. The annual list showcases and honors the league’s best volleyball players from the previous season.

This year, the Nodaway Valley Wolverines had one all-conference selection. That selection was senior Liv Laughery. Laughery was primarily the libero on the Wolverines this year making a big impact in the back row for NV.

Laughery started all 33 matches for the Wolverines. She played in 68 sets in those matches. Laughery led the Wolverines in digs with 169 this season. She was fourth on the team in serving, going 120-for-132 with 14 ace serves, serving at a 90.9% clip. She had 10 assists and 22 attack attempts on the year with five kills.

There was only one unanimous selection on this year’s POI All-Conference teams. That was Lenox senior Sadie Cox. Cox had a conference-leading 459 kills in 1,034 attacks, also a POI high. Cox was also the POI leader in solo blocks with 43, second in total blocks and kill efficiency, third in ace serves and fourth in digs.

2024 Pride of Iowa Conference champion Southwest Valley had three first-team selections and five overall selections on the team. Lenox and Mount Ayr also had five selections in total on the teams .

The Pride of Iowa Conference had a pair of teams reach a regional final in their respective postseason regional tournaments. Southeast Warren lost to top-ranked Ankeny Christian Academy 3-0 in the 1A Region 1 Final while Southwest Valley lost to seventh-ranked Janesville 3-0 in the 1A Region 6 Final. Three POI teams had 20 or more total wins this year. Southwest Valley ended the year 30-4, Southeast Warren ended 27-20, and Lenox ended the year 23-16. Two other teams had double-digit win totals with Mount Ayr going 17-17 and Wayne going 11-15.

The Wolverines said goodbye to three seniors from this year’s team. Seniors from the squad this season were Bailey Carstens, KayLynn Virtue and Laughery.

Carstens ended the season with 47 kills on 191 attacks in 64 sets played. She had 17 blocks and 34 digs. From the service line, Carstens scored seven aces on 97-of-108 serving (89.8%).