An unlikely fifth place matchup turned into the biggest victory to date for the Washington Demon volleyball team.The Demons returned to court after a ten day layoff to host the 29th annual Washington Demon Varsity Volleyball Classic.

In pool play, the Demons were paired up with the Iowa Mennonite School, Tri County Thornberg, and Iowa City Regina. After winning their first match with Tri County in straight sets (21-9, 21-13), Washington would lose their next two matches in three games to Iowa City Regina (21-18, 11-21, 5-15) and IMS (21-23, 24-22, 14-16). The Demons would meet up in the fifth and sixth place match with the Keota Eagles.

Coming into the tournament, the Eagles had a record of 15-3 overall and had claimed a share of the South Iowa Cedar Conference crown with their straight set win against English Valleys on Thursday. However, the Eagles would lose in pool play matches in three sets to Wapello (21-119, 18-21, 12-15) and Wilton (20-22, 21-12, 5-15) to fall into the consolation’s top matchup.

In the consolation match, Washington ended up edging Keota in straight sets (25-23, 25-18) to end the tournament with a 2-2 record.  Washington volleyball coach Julliana Berg says she saw her team play loose against Keota.

“We just went into the match and just played.” Berg said, “The girls said “this feels a little different, there is something different I don’t know what it is but its different.” I saw our girls just out there playing, they played loose, they just played volleyball. ”

Berg adds she hopes the victory will spark a late season winning streak.

“I hope it kind gets us rolling with some wins here.” Berg said, “Once you win once, then you win again, then you win again its kind of contagious. You keep wanting to win more and you start to learn how to win.”

The two victories helped improve Washington’s overall record to 5-20. The Demons will be back on the court on Tuesday as Washington will face Southeast Conference foe Fairfield.