OTTUMWA — It would have been easy for Victoria Ita to have been on the other side of the net Wednesday night at the Tom Arnold Net Center.

Last year, the Burlington senior could have chosen to stay close to home and be a part of the Southeastern volleyball squad.

“I decided to come up to Indian Hills because they have a great volleyball program here,” Ita said. “I love my teammates and I love this team. I’m glad I made this choice.”

The Warrior freshman was certainly happy to be on the maroon and gold side of the court Wednesday. Ita was part of an onslaught of early offense and dominant overall volleyball as IHCC dominated the Blackhawks in 25-14, 25-17, 25-11 sweep.

“It’s always mice playing Southeastern and getting a win from them,” Ita said. “This was awesome. We came out and got this one in three games.”

“We need to go out there like this each night and power it hard every time.”

The lack of let-up by the Warriors was also noticeable just 48 hours after IHCC needed four games after a dominant start to finish off Grand View JV in their first of two homecoming matches. The third game loss and tough two-point, match-clinching win in game four against the Vikings seemed to carry over for several Indian Hills players heading into Wednesday’s match.

“We should have put that win away a lot sooner the other night,” sophomore liebro Jessi Black said. “I’m glad we came back here and got this win in three. That’s what we should have done.”

“Sometimes we get off to a slow start and I always wish it was boom, boom, boom right from the first point,” Warriors head coach Lyndsey Lyon joked. “Outside of the first few points, the girls were pretty much right on it playing at that high level. We didn’t make a lot of mistakes and the girls kept their intensity up throughout.”

Those in attendance as part of week-long Indian Hills homecoming festivities didn’t get to see much late-game drama on Wednesday. In all three games, the Warriors used big early runs to post double-digit leads.

The Warriors needed just 19 minutes to put away the opening game, capping a 25-14 win on a Peyton Crosser kill. Southeastern seemed poised to answer back in game two, opening an early two-point lead while battling back and forth with IHCC through the first 15 points before a run of 10 unanswered points paved the way to a 25-17 win for the Warriors.

“When you get a run like that, it’s kind of hard to beat that,” Ita said. “That’s what we need to do in every game.”

Unlike Monday, Indian Hills left little doubt about the inevitable sweep. After Southeastern scored the first point of game three, IHCC scored 12 of the next 13 and extended their lead to as large as 21-6 to close out the win in style.

“We had a really fun practice on Tuesday after that match on Monday, but we knew we had to come in with plenty of focus for this match,” Lyon said. “We don’t like to dwell on those things, but we do have to look forward and fuel the fire with things that we didn’t do quite as well before.”

Freshman Carla Novaes proved to be a powerful force for the Blackhawks to handle throughout the night at the net as the Brazilian scored on a match-best 15 kills on 23-26 hitting with a pair of ace serves. Sophomore Emily Eswonia added a perfect 16-16 serving night while digging out 14 balls as IHCC got an extra boost from the homecoming festivities that included a well-attended two-mile and 5K walk/run prior to the match.

“We love it when people come to the match and we love this kind of atmosphere,” Black said. “We love when there is that kind of support for us. A lot of people came on Monday night and lot of people came to this match. It turned out really good.”

Indian Hills will hope to keep the good times rolling as their schedule picks up for the season’s stretch run. IHCC plays four matches this weekend at the East Central Tournament in Missouri, facing 20th-ranked (DII) Illinois Central and Mineral Area on Friday before taking on East Central and Jefferson College Saturday. The Warriors (18-4) then return home for a sophomore-night regional showdown with fourth-ranked (DI) Iowa Western on Tuesday.

“We’ve been playing a lot of matches lately. It can be a little tiring, but I like having a lot of games,” Black said. “We still have things we can improve on and we’re working on that with every match and every practice.”

Indian Hills 25-25-25

Southeastern 14-17-11

IHCC Statistics

Serving — Emily Eswonia 16-16, Cristaine Vosconcoles 10-10, Ailime deFreitas 9-10, Carla Novaes 8-10, Victoria Ita 8-11, Peyton Crosser 6-6, Taylor Delaney 1-1, Jessi Black 1-2, Shelby Lauterbach 0-1. Team 59-67. Aces — Novaes 2, Ita. Team — 3.

Hitting — Novaes 23-26, Crosser 13-15, Eswonia 11-11, Vosconcoles 10-13, Ita 7-8, Lauterbach 4-5, deFreitas 3-4, Black 1-1. Team 72-83. Kills — Novaes 15, Crosser 8, Eswonia 6, Ita 5, deFreitas 3, Vosconcoles 3, Lauterbach 2, Black. Team — 43.

Setting — deFreitas 40, Delaney, Ita, Vosconcoles. Team — 43.

Blocks — Crosser 6, Vosconcoles 4, deFreitas 2, Eswonia 2, Ita, Lauterbach. Team — 16.

Digs — Eswonia 14, Black 11, deFreitas 8, Delaney 4, Kassidy Guiham 4, Novaes 4, Vosconcoles 4, Ita. Team — 53.