Photo Courtesy of Washington Demon Activities Social Media
The Washington Demon volleyball team takes their first step on the tournament trail tonight when they host Benton in the quarterfinal round of the Class 3A Regional Tournament. Washington is 21-13 this year, they finished 9-1 in the Southeast Conference. Thursday, they were four set winners over Columbus on Senior Night, led by 30 assists from Reagan Miller, Leighton Messinger with 26 kills and two aces. Carys Miller with 22 assists. Ellie Farmer with 21 digs and Taylor Miksch with 14 kills, 14 digs and two aces. This year as a team, the Demons have 1,214 digs, 925 kills, 870 assists, 10th most in 3A, 166 aces and 147 blocks. Individual active leaders include Reagan Miller with 481 assists and 51 aces, ninth in 3A, Leighton Messinger with 307 kills, 10th in Class 3A, Ellie Farmer with 297 digs, and Lauren Drahota with 26 blocks.
Benton is 11-24 on the year, 1-4 in the WAMAC Conference and have dropped nine straight matches. This season they have 966 digs, 714 kills, 662 assists, 117 blocks and 116 aces. Individual leaders include Lily Schulte with 314 assists, Amanda Embretson and Talulah Schroeder with 205 digs each. Schroedder has 178 kills. Chloe DeGroot 34 blocks and Callan Keiper 27 aces. This week, Demon Seniors Leighton Messinger, Carys Miller, Taylor Miksch, Lily Brown and Addison Miller talked with KCII Sports about what will lead them to postseason success. “We need to serve-receive well. That starts off every play. We’re going to focus on that in practice. We need to come bringing all the energy we have. We need to play our game.”
These teams have met three times in the last 12 years with Benton winning each by sweeps. The most recent meeting was 2020. The winner of this match moves on to meet the winner of Center Point-Urbana and Vinton-Shellsburg in the Class 3A Regional Semifinals Thursday. You can hear all of the action between the Demons and Bobcats live tonight on FM 106.1, the KCII1 App and KCIIradio.com, beginning with the Demon Playoff Pregame Show at 6:30p.m. And first serve at seven from the Demon Den.