It was said about Yankees baseball legend Joe DiMaggio that his greatness lay in making the difficult look easy.

The same could be said of the nearly flawless performance by the Kennedy volleyball girls on their home court Tuesday night as they took down Class 5A top-ranked and undefeated Cedar Falls in three sets.

“We got our butts kicked,” Tigers coach Matt Johnson said succinctly.

Johnson has a squad of tall and strong big hitters that came into the match unblemished at 13-0, having lost only five sets all season. Moreover, Cedar Falls had beaten Kennedy twice Saturday (2-0 and 2-1) in the Osage Invitational.

Summed up Cougars coach Michelle Goodall of the weekend contests, “They kicked our butts.”

What a difference three days and a third match make. This time around it was no contest.

The No. 4 Cougars (12-5) seemed to be in control the whole way, winning 25-14, 26-24, 25-18.

"We came in as the underdog,” said star senior setter Anna Fluent. “So all the pressure was on them. We just tried to stay calm and play together as a team.”

With a young team dominated by sophomore starters, Johnson said he figured Tuesday’s rematch would be tough.

“On Saturday,” he said, “we got a lot of breaks on 50/50 points that went our way. I knew we’d see a different Kennedy team tonight.

“Early on, they fed off a big home crowd. And they played with a lot of energy.”

The match’s initial point, in fact, came after a long, back-and-forth rally punctuated by a monster kill from Kennedy junior Paige Frank (who had two more to close out the game). The Cougars never trailed from that point in the opening set.

“We had three days of film and extra long practices to prepare,” pointed out senior outside hitter Macy Anderson, who had 11 kills on the night. “And we made changes that really helped.”

Anderson, for instance, moved to the right side, where she said she feels more comfortable. And 6-foot-3 senior jackrabbit Brinley Milbrath was moved to the middle to better counter the Tigers’ formidable front line of smash specialists.

“My goal was to bother their big middle hitters,” explained Milbrath. “I had a lot of help. And our back row was fantastic and always in position if the ball got by us.”

While the Cougars won the first set going away, the second proved more problematic. Neither team led by more than two points as it see-sawed from one to the other.

Fluent recorded an ace serve to put the Cougars up 22-21, and senior libero Tianna Drahn finished it off with an ace of her own for the two-point win.

With their backs to the wall, the Cedar Falls girls tried to rally back and actually held the lead in the third set until Kennedy tied it at 17-all. The Cougars scored eight of the next nine points, though, with Anderson getting three more kills.

“The kids did a great job tonight,” Goodall said. “They were confident and stayed calm but really showed intensity. And they kept their composure all night.”