Cyclones open Baughman era with home tourney title

 HARLAN -- Willie Baughman couldn’t have asked for a much better start to his first year as the Harlan Community High School head volleyball coach.
 Baughman’s squad stayed undefeated until their sixth and final match of Saturday’s season-opening Cyclone Tournament, finishing 5-1 overall and winning the gold pool championship via tiebreaker criteria over Treynor and Indianola.
 All three gold pool teams entered the final round with 4-0 records before going 1-1 against each other. HCHS, which started the day by winning its first 10 sets, was swept by Indianola in its last match (17-21, 17-21) but took first place based on the least defensive points allowed during gold pool play.
 The Cyclones beat Treynor 21-19, 21-16 and allowed 77 total points. The 12th-ranked (2A) Cardinals, who beat Indianola in three (20-22, 21-11, 15-11) allowed 86 points and the 12th-ranked (5A) Indians allowed 90.
 “It was a good day overall. We definitely grew from the beginning of the day to the end of the day,” Baughman said. “We saw some good things [and] saw some things we definitely need to work on.”
 IKM-Manning was also in the tourney field Saturday and placed third in the silver pool (via tiebreaker), finishing with a 2-4 match record. East Sac County, Council Bluffs Abraham Lincoln and the Wolves all went 1-1 in silver pool play.