In the friendly confides of the Birds Nest, the Keota Eagles volleyball team opened up postseason play Tuesday night against a conference rival.The Eagles, the 2014 South Iowa Cedar Conference champions, opened up against their conference foe Montezuma in the quarterfinals of the Class 1A Region 7 tournament. The Braves challenged the Eagles early each game, but Keota rallied for a straight set victory (25-13, 25-16, 25-20).

Senior Madison Sheetz led the Eagles with 15 kills, while senior Callie Griener led Keota with 16 digs in the victory.

The match was the first competitive volleyball Keota had played in 15 days. Sheetz said it was nice to get back on the court. “We had a scrimmage in between the time, which got us back to (playing volleyball).” Sheetz said, “It’s good to come out and win after that long time.”

The victory improves Keota to 20-6 overall. The Eagles’ next opponent is the Iowa Valley Tigers, who was arguably Keota’s toughest conference match of the year. Iowa Valley forced a fifth set, but the Eagles ultimately came out on top (25-22, 25-16, 22-25, 18-25, 15-10).

Head coach Brandi Cave says she expects a good effort out of the Tigers. Cave said, “This will not be an easy match for us. The girls need to come in mentally prepared on Friday.”

The regional semifinal between Keota and Iowa Valley is Friday evening at 7 p.m. at Keota High School.

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