Prep volleyball: Ottumwa wins Iowa Alliance tournament title

Oct. 15—AMES — It was a long, exhausting day for the Ottumwa High School volleyball team.

At the end of the day, there was a huge reward awaiting the Bulldogs.

For the second straight week, Ottumwa closed out a long Saturday on the volleyball court with a tournament championship. The Bulldogs needed every point to pull off the program's first-ever Iowa Alliance Conference tournament title, ultimately coming out on top after finishing in a three-way tie by the end of the day with Ames and Des Moines Roosevelt.

"It was an exciting, but exhausting day," Ottumwa head volleyball coach Ruth Thomas said. "We came the furthest of anyone in the tournament. We were on a bus at 5:30 a.m. For the girls to put in that type of effort all the way to end all day, I'm super proud."

Ottumwa opened the long day in Ames with a 25-19, 25-15 sweep of Marshalltown, the second time in a week that the Bulldogs beat the Bobcats on the way to a title after sweeping Marshalltown 21-9 and 21-17 last Saturday at the Oskaloosa Tournament. The resiliency of the Bulldogs was tested, however, after a tense three-set loss to Des Moines Roosevelt decided in a thrilling 19-17 final game.

"We weren't sure what the rest of the day was going to look like," Thomas said. "We had to get refocused on the things that made us successful."

Ottumwa was able to get back on track with a tough win over Des Moines Lincoln coming right after the long, tough battle with the Roughriders. Heading into the second half of the tournament, Roosevelt and Ames held a one-game lead over the Bulldogs and Fort Dodge entering a pivotal point of the tournament as OHS took on Fort Dodge while Roosevelt faced Ames.

Ottumwa took care of business, edging the Dodgers in three sets. At the same time, Ames won a three-game battle giving the Little Cyclones a chance to win the outright tournament title while also giving Ottumwa heading into their final match of the day.

"It all came down to that final match for us," Thomas said. "The girls had to battle right down to the final set."

Ottumwa won the first game against Ames, 25-15, before the Little Cyclones took the second set, 25-16. With the conference tournament title ultimately down to the final set.

The Bulldogs completed their championship comeback, winning their third straight match of the day earning a 15-11 victory in the final set of the day. Ottumwa ultimately was awarded the tournament title of the gold pool after on the third tiebreaker of the pool-play tournament on the fewest number of points allowed against the three teams tied at for first place.

"To come back and put in all that hard work with different people stepping up to take the pressure off," Thomas said. "The girls made the adjustments to do what we needed to do."

Ottumwa finishes the regular season with a record of 27-8, the most wins in a single season for any Bulldog volleyball team since going 27-9 in 2010. Next up for OHS will be the Class 5A regional semifinals at Iowa City Liberty on Thursday at 7 p.m.