The Southeast Iowa Super Conference volleyball tournament got underway last night, and there was no disputing who was the best team playing in Waco Thursday evening.

Holy Trinity Catholic, the top seed and no 1 rated team in Class A volleyball, defended their ranking by sweeping the competition in straight sets. In fact, no team got more than 11 points in a single game against the Warriors.

The battle for second place in the pool had a lot more drama. The Lone Tree Lions, the fifth seed in the pool and 17th seed overall, took the 8th seeded Highland Huskies to a third set in the final match of the night. Ultimately, the Huskies would win the match (18-21, 21-12, 15-13), and finished as the second best team in the WACO pool. Had Lone Tree won the third set, it would have forced a two game playoff between the Lions, Huskies,and the WACO Warriors.

Lone Tree co head volleyball coach Sonda Prybil says her team was inches away from a better pool play record.

“I couldn’t be prouder of the girls, they fought like crazy.” Prybil said, “We told them (Wednesday) at practice that our record doesn’t show anything. Every team we have played we have played to 5 (games) expect for two.”

Highland head coach Chris Rath says it was an up and down night for her girls, and that the Lions always seem to give her team trouble.

“Lone Tree always seems to play good against us, we seemed to not play up to the par that we should.” Rath said, “I was just glad they picked up the second game and came back and won the third game.”

The WACO Warriors would end up taking  third in the pool with a 2-2 record, Lone Tree would take fourth with a record of 1-3, and Van Buren would finish in last with a match record of 0-4.

Holy Trinity and Highland have advanced to Saturday’s championship bracket. The Huskies will face Mediapolis starting at 5 p.m. at Holy Trinity High School.

Several KCII area teams played well enough last night to get themselves into the consolation bracket.  The Warriors will face off against the Cardinal Comets. The Columbus Community Wildcats will take on the Iowa Mennonite School. Finally, Lone Tree will battle Central Lee. Matches inside the consolation bracket will take place at WACO high school starting at 11 a.m.