Top Volleyball Athletes Making Their Way To State Softball

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It happened.  Softball season happened!  Teams made it through the “What Ifs” of the season and have punched their ticket to play at the state tournament next week at Rodgers Sports Complex in Fort Dodge.  What I absolutely love about Iowa is the amount of athletes that just make success a habit in any sport they play (shout out to multi-sport athletes and the coaches who make it work).  Here is a look at some of the names we’ve seen, but will now take the big stage at state softball. </span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="17273" first="Abbey" last="Griffin"] - Albia</strong></p> [caption id="attachment_102117" align="alignright" width="300"]<img class="wp-image-102117 size-medium" src="https://prephoops-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/pd/uploads/2020/07/DSC04920-e1595435960531-300x253.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="253" /> Griffin[/caption] <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Griffin was a major point scoring outside attacker for Albia and also saw a lot of success playing at Club Ignit Select. After homering in last year’s state tournament, she is one of the top hitters for Albia with three homeruns on the season and eight stolen bases.  Albia is the top seed overall in Class 3A with a 19-1 record. </span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>A Top Setting Match-Up </strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">West Delaware and Winterset have always had strong softball programs and they will be first round opponents in Class 4A next week.  A fun matchup to watch is Macey Kleitch the pitcher for West Delaware and [player_tooltip player_id="79232" first="Lauren" last="Carter"] of Winterset.  Both are top setters in the state and Kleitsch will actually head to Grand View to play volleyball where Carter’s mom, Tina Carter, is the head coach.  Kleitsch is one of the top pitchers in 4A and also leads the state in overall hits with 50 on the season. </span></p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en"><a href="https://x.com/GVU_VB?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@GVU_VB</a> commit [player_tooltip player_id="40905" first="Macey" last="Kleitsch"] is just so fun to watch with how she just orchestrates the whole match. One of the top setters in the state for West Delaware <a href="https://t.co/xcV2woNBO9">pic.x.com/xcV2woNBO9</a></p> — Chris Fitzgerald (@PrepDigChris) <a href="https://x.com/PrepDigChris/status/1194408022497464321?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 13, 2019</a></blockquote> <p><script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="79017" first="Macy" last="Vanfossan"] - Underwood</strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Underwood fell just short of a state volleyball tournament appearance, but scored an upset over West Monona to get to Fort Dodge in Class 2A.  Vanfossan is one of the top outside hitters in SW Iowa for volleyball and in softball she is carrying a .333 batting average.  The Eagles will take on </span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="79026" first="Jori" last="Hajek"] - Humboldt</strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Humboldt has fallen victim to regional final losses in volleyball, but were able to punch their ticket to Fort Dodge with a win over MOC-Floyd Valley.  Hajek is a springy outside on the volleyball court, but she has been tearing up the softball diamond this summer with five home runs, hitting .353 on the season.  </span></p> [caption id="attachment_102118" align="alignright" width="225"]<img class="size-medium wp-image-102118" src="https://prephoops-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/pd/uploads/2020/07/thumb_DSC01278_1024-225x300.jpg" alt="" width="225" height="300" /> [player_tooltip player_id="78455" first="Summer" last="Brand"][/caption] <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="78455" first="Summer" last="Brand"] - Mount Vernon</strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Mount Vernon just knows how to win and find their way to a state tournament.  With a challenging conference schedule in the WaMac, it definitely provides a slate to make them state tournament ready in any sport.  This past fall, [player_tooltip player_id="78455" first="Summer" last="Brand"] was the setter who did it all for the Mustangs as they continued to win five set matches and eventually the Class 3A state title.  Brand is hitting .361 on the softball field and will lead her team into a first round matchup with Humboldt. </span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="41250" first="Emily" last="Wood"] - Pleasant Valley </strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Wood is starting and ending her Junior year with bookend state tournaments of volleyball and softball.  Wood had nearly 200 kills for the Spartans as they blazed their way to a final four appearance in Class 5A.  On the softball field she is continuing the PV tradition where she has had great success hitting .475 on the season.  </span></p>