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Volleyball Players Receive Awards After Best Season

A number of firsts were achieved by the Ankeny Christian Academy volleyball team as it finished its best-ever season in October.

Coach Phil Swift outlined the achievements at the ACA volleyball banquet and awards program on Nov. 5. The biggest achievement was finishing with a winning record in the Rolling Hills Conference. The team finished with a 5-4 record and placed fifth in the 10-team conference. It is the first time an ACA volleyball team has recorded a winning conference record. To finish with a winning record, ACA needed to beat CAM, a team ACA had never beaten in volleyball. ACA, a team without a senior, won that match 3-1 at Anita.

"It was a great accomplishment. Coming into this year, we had one player with varsity experience, so for a team to do that without varsity experience was simply amazing," Swift said.

The one player with previous varsity experience was junior Kaleigh Strong, who was named to the first all-conference team by Rolling Hills Conference coaches. She is the first ACA volleyball player to be named to a first all-conference team.

Swift presented other individual awards. For the first time, two players received the Soaring Eagle Award, a total person award, given in recognition of spiritual leadership, total commitment, performance, attitude, athletic ability, and academic performance. The award was presented to junior team captains Becky Howe and Natalie Heggen. Heggen also received the Most Valuable Player Award, which was voted on by the players. As the team's setter, she had 230 assists and 167 digs, which ranked her near the top of the conference for those stats. Howe was recognized as the team's best server with a 93.3 percent completion rate.

The Ace Serve Award for most ace serves in the season went to sophomore Danae Swift. She and Strong tied for most ace serves with 32 each, but Swift had a better serving completion percentage at 90 percent.

The Mighty in Spirit Award went to junior Ana Smith for her Christian character and attitude. Scholar-Athlete Awards for maintaining a 3.5 cumulative grade point average went to Heggen, Swift and sophomore Kate Kruse. To receive the award, players must have completed at least one semester at ACA, which means freshman, new students and homeschool students do not qualify for the award.

Letterwinners were Heggen, Howe, Kruse, Smith, Strong, Swift, Katie Morrow and freshman Morgan Phipps. Swift recognized Phipps for being one of the few ACA freshmen who has received a varsity letter in volleyball. He said Morrow was the first player to transfer in during the season who made the varsity team.

The Most Improved Player Award, which Swift said he typically gives to a junior varsity player, went to sophomore Taylor Yarbrough, who played volleyball for the first time as a freshman. Swift recognized the other junior varsity players, Mickensee Wilson, MacKenzie Fugate, Emma Swensen, Emily Eppens, Katelyn Cameron, Amy McGee, and Aubrey Brown. The junior varsity had a record of 2-7.