Photo Courtesy of Mid-Prairie Volleyball Social Media

The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk volleyball team has spent much of the last handful of years rewriting their record books and redefining what’s possible. Tuesday night, they added yet another accomplishment to that impressive list. For the first time in program history, the Golden Hawks are on their way to the State Tournament in back-to-back seasons. The No. 8 Hawks earned their way to Coralville by outlasting the No. 12 Center Point-Urbana Stormin’ Pointers in five in Wellman. Mid-Prairie took the win 23-25, 25-11, 25-17, 21-25 and 15-12. Following the match, Golden Hawk seniors Laurin Fay, Ellie Callahan, Harper Pacha, Jovi Evans, Katelyn Harland and Avery Helmuth talked about the match, the win, the experience and State. “We knew that in that first set we were just a little shaky and we knew the second set was going to be ours, we just had to play our game. We needed to rebound. We knew that we could do this. We came in with a ‘you can’ mindset. We knew this was our last chance, our last home game and so we have to lay everything out on the court, attitudes, effort. It feels like we all did that. (In the fifth set) our energy was completely different. We talked and said ‘we can do it, we can do it’! The energy we received from the crowd, our students, everyone, was amazing. It was very high energy. Everyone was so excited, but we tried our best to remain calm and focused and push through. There we lots of hugs after. We knew we could do it and we earned that! It’s the best feeling because this was our goal at the beginning of the year and we did it!”

Fay talked about the excitement of the final point, a block she put on Brielle Trout at the net to send the crowd at Tim Grady Gymnasium into a frenzy and give the Golden Hawks their new banner. “If there was anything I could do to help the team, I was going to do it. We were so into it, we really wanted this win. We’ve been working our tails off all season long and getting that point for our team felt so amazing. I was so proud. We were just trying to stay with (their middle hitter). She is a very good player, very strong at the net. I was told to just stay with her as much as I could. That’s what I tried my best to do. It was so thrilling! I’m so excited to play with these girls longer. We have such a great team bond. I love playing with them and I’m so glad we get to do it at State!”

Stat-leaders for Mid-Prairie included Helmuth with 32 assists. Elise Foster with 31 digs. Jeorgia Evans with 27 digs. Jovi Evans with 25 kills, 25 digs, and 18 assists. Katelyn Harland with 10 kills and two aces. Laurin Fay with five blocks. Mid-Prairie is now 30-9 on the season, while CPU wraps up at 22-14. Mid-Prairie will be in action Tuesday at Xtream Arena in the Quarterfinals of the Class 3A State Tournament. The Golden Hawks, the seven seed, will meet the second seeded Knights of Davenport Assumption. The Golden Hawk State Tournament Volleyball Pregame Show will be at 9:45 a.m. With first-serve at 10:25a.m. In Coralville, live on KCII.