The No. 11 Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk volleyball team saw their season draw to a close Tuesday night in the Class 3A regional finals, falling to No. 2 Davenport Assumption in straight sets in the Quad Cities. The Lady Knights earned the state tournament bid by scores of 25-13, 25-19, and 25-11. Unofficially, Mid-Prairie was led on the night by eight assists from freshman Jovi Evans, eight digs from sophomore Lanee Duwa, six kills for senior Landry Pacha, and three blocks for senior Ella Groenewold. After the match, Golden Hawk head coach Sherry Evans talked about this year’s team and the strides taken by the program to reach this level. “I think our self confidence in that second set was a lot higher. We were talking and communicating better together as a team, instead of being frustrated. That’s a big thing that we overcame this year. The frustration that can happen when you’re down. Overcoming those things. Those are big hurdles. All season we have done a really good job with that. Unfortunately, moving forward then into our third set tonight, that was really hard for us to do. There are a lot of really good things to look forward to in the program in the future and this was a good experience for everyone to see what a really good champion team looks like. Davenport Assumption is a great team. To reach this point means a lot for our school. We’re doing a lot of really good things and the kids have believed in me as their coach and all of their other coaches too. They put their trust in us. We can just keep going up from here.”

Mid-Prairie ends their season with a 27-12 overall record, one win shy of their first state tournament bid since 2004. They say good bye to seniors Groenewold, Pacha, and Lizzie Kalm.