Metro Sports Report

Mustangs run 9th in Wisconsin

KENOSHA, Wis. - The Mount Mercy men's and women's cross country teams  both finished ninth in a strong field at the Vic Godfrey Invitational  Saturday in Wisconsin.

James Lindstrom placed 34th in the men's 8K race in 26 mintues, 46.6  seconds for the Mustangs. Vanessa Cortes finished 55th for Mount Mercy  in the women's 5K in 20 minutes, 13.3 seconds.

No. 12 Eagles split 2 matches in tourney

The 12th-ranked Kirkwood women's volleyball team split its two matches in the Kirkwood tournament Friday night at Johnson Hall.

The Eagles topped Illinois Central, 25-14, 15-25, 25-16, 25-18 in their first match before losing to seventh-ranked Highland, 25-21, 16-25, 25-23, 25-19 in their second contest.

Alexa Ingram led Kirkwood with 39 kills in the two matches, with 19 kills against Illinois Central and 20 against Highland.

Haleigh Durnin, Abbi Tunis and Sami Johnson had seven kills against Illinois Central. Lauren Keane collected 32 assists. Maddie Lavenz  finished with 32 digs and three aces. Keane had 18 digs, Ingram 15, Chloe McNeese 13 and Johnson 12. Keane blocked four shots.

Ingram is born killer for Kirkwood

Alexa Ingram has the heart of a killer on a volleyball court, which is why she's starring for the Kirkwood Eagles now instead of playing for the Drake Bulldogs.

Ingram played for the Bulldogs last season as a freshman, but the coaching staff viewed the dynamic left-hander as a setter instead of a kill-shot artist at the net.

Ingram is "only" 5-foot-7, which is relatively short for a hitter in college, but she loves that part of the game and was not happy with her limited role at Drake.

"I didn't really like it too much," she said Wednesday night. "I just left and was ready to take a break."

Ingram, an Iowa City High grad, left Drake after the fall semester in 2017 and transferred to the University of Iowa for the winter semester, not knowing if she'd ever play volleyball again.

Then the bug hit again.

"I decided I missed it," she said. "Going to school and not having anything at the end of the day, I was like 'I don't know what to do.' I like the structure of it."

Ingram has found a new home at Kirkwood, where she's become a key player for the 12th-ranked Eagles. She leads Kirkwood with 142 kills and 109 digs in 11 matches and is having a blast.

Mustangs sweep Heart volleyball opener

The Mount Mercy women's volleyball team has gotten off to a nice start this season with an 11-and-2 record, but Coach Deb Marlin knows there's a long way to go for the Mustangs.

Mount Mercy swept Culver-Stockton, 25-15, 25-20, 25-22, in the Heart of America Conference opener at the steamy Hennessey Recreation Center Tuesday night.

"It's a great start," Marlin said. "We've done what we needed to do. There's one match that we would like back. Our other loss was against a really good team, and I thought we played well in that match.

"But at the end of the day, the toughest part of our schedule is yet to come. If we can keep everyone healthy and keep fine-tuning our game, we've looked really good at times. We can play with anybody, I believe, in this conference."

Lauren Stopko, who became the career digs leader at Mount Mercy this past weekend, collected 23 more Tuesday to help pave the victory. The 5-foot-5 libero from Tiffin now has a whopping 2,028 digs in her four-year career with the Mustangs.