The No. 3 in Class 3A Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk volleyball team took care of long-time River Valley Conference nemesis West Liberty Thursday night, with a sweep in front of a packed house at Tim Grady Gymnasium in Wellman. Mid-Prairie took the match by scores of 25-15, 25-17 and 25-15. Stat-leaders for the Hawks on the night included this week’s KCII Area Athlete of the Week Avery Helmuth with 15 assists, nine for Jovi Evans. Evans had a team best 12 kills, Jeorgia Evans finished with nine. Elise Foster led the defense with 20 digs, Jovi Evans had 12, Laurin Fay’s six blocks were best, Jovi Evans had five and Katelyn Harland and Jeorgia Evans each finished with two aces. Following the match, Golden Hawk seniors Laurin Fay and Jovi Evans joined KCII Sports to break down the win.

Fay said, “We just have to connect as a team in general, lock in and play hard. Our goal on defense at the net is to press hard. Give them no room to get through us and try to be big, so they have to be scared and work around us. We can pick up anything and we try to get touches on everything. I love getting up there, seeing over the net, shoving it in their faces when I get up there that high. Blocks give me so much adrenaline, I just love getting a block! There is nothing better than getting a block in a game!”

Evans continued, “Once we got comfortable in the third set, we took off and really got to show our ability. Going into the third set before we came back in the gym we talked about ‘Okay, this is our set, we’re going to make a statement right now. We are going to come at it hard’ and that’s exactly what we did! There’s something about West Liberty that it makes feel better than any other win. Last year they took it from us and this year we talked about how it was our revenge match. We were really focused on winning this match!”

Mid-Prairie is now 11-0, 2-0 in the River Valley Conference as West Liberty fall to 9-5 overall. The Hawks are in action at the Iowa City West Tournament Saturday.