The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk volleyball team begins defense of their back-to-back River Valley Conference titles with life on the road tonight in West Branch. The Hawks are red-hot to start the season, standing at 8-0 after championships in tournaments at Mount Vernon and Central Lee. Mid-Prairie has collected victories this season over No. 2 in 4A Pella, No. 8 in 3A Mount Vernon and Class 4A Bondurant-Farrar and Burlington. The Hawks have 209 kills and 193 assists both fifth in 3A, and a .321 kill efficiency on offense seventh. Defensively they have put up 345 digs second in 3A and 33 blocks while knocking down 50 aces from the service line, ninth in the state. Individually, Avery Helmuth is the leader with 88 assists, Jovi Evans has 70 kills, fifth in 3A and a .377 swing efficiency, 10th in the state, Jeorgia Evans 93 digs fourth in 3A and 19 aces third in 3A and Laurin Fay 11 blocks, 10th in the state. The Hawks are ranked No. 4 in Class 3A in the latest poll from the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union.
West Branch is out to a 2-4 start. They dropped a pair of matches to Solon and Clear Creek Amana at a West Liberty Tournament Tuesday. This year they have 22 kills, 20 assists and a .095 swing efficiency. On defense it’s 32 digs and seven blocks. From the service line they have four aces. Individually, Lyla Popkes has 16 assists, Briley Kaalberg five kills and three blocks, Kennedy Simpson 12 digs and four different Bears have an ace each. This week, Golden Hawk head coaches Sherry and Zeb Evans spoke with KCII Sports about the key to the Hawks hot start. “Those early matches were super-competitive from the standpoint of it being against ranked teams. I think what stuck out the most was we sided out 65% of the time on the first ball. If we can continue to perform like that against highly ranked teams, we’re going to be super successful. That’s just kudos to our passing, serve-receive and our hitters to be terminal when they get a ball they can swing at. I think they feel really good about it. Definitely gives them a lot of confidence to start of the season undefeated in very highly ranked matches. They saw what they can do and they’re hungry for more. They’re a great group and are always willing to listen and put in the work. They do the things they need to do.”
Mid-Prairie has won three of the last four over the Bears, including a sweep last season. Action starts tonight at 7p.m. At West Branch High School.