“I moved Kamryn Howard, who was a firstteam all-district setter last year, to right side hitting, and now I moved her to the left side,” Anderson said. “I moved Ana Alexander, who has led the state in digs the last two or three years to setter.

“This is (Howard’s) first game to play outside hitter except for maybe a middle school game. I thought she swung well. She has a great swing from either side. If we can get her the ball, and Ana the ball in a good spot, then we have some options.

“(Howard) is a big one. Bentley Richard moved to the middle and she hadn’t played middle since middle school.

“We are trying to get healthy, but as we are doing that the next person is stepping up.”

Howard and Richard along with senior Ella Arabie were key to the Yellow Jackets’ win in the third set to close out the match. An early kill by Arabie put Iowa up 4-1 and one by Richard helped the Yellow Jackets weather a Westlake (5-9) rally. Howard’s back-to-back kills put Iowa up 17-10.

“We had a little poise to us,” Anderson said. “We got a little loose at some point in all three sets.

“We had some seniors set up in the last one. Bentley Richard put some balls down, Ella Arabie put some balls down. We finished strong, thankfully.”

Westlake overcame a 5-1 deficit in the first set and took an 8-7 lead on an ace by Kaitlyn Benoit. The Rams were up 19-17 before Iowa closed the set on an 8-1 run led by three aces from Richard.

Westlake came out strong in the second set with a 6-2 lead but couldn’t hold on.

Shelbee Lejeune led Westlake with seven kills, seven assists and seven digs, while Saniah Captain finished with seven kills and two blocks.