The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk volleyball team begins the River Valley Conference schedule tonight with a road trip to West Branch. The Golden Hawks are 4-0 entering play, sweeping Lone Tree, Highland, Keota and Washington so far this year. In their last outing a week ago against the Demons, the Hawks were winners 25-14, 25-14 and 25-6, led by Landry Pacha’s 23 assists, Ella Groenewold’s 10 kills, Dakota Mitchell’s 11 digs and five blocks from Maya Nonnenmann. On the season, Mid-Prairie is led by Groenewold’s 24 kills, Pacha’s 62 assists, Mitchell’s 32 digs and Nonnenmann’s six blocks.

West Branch comes into play at 4-1 on the year with wins over New London, Wapello, Prince of Piece and Winfield-Mt. Union, their lone loss came in three sets at their home tournament to Eddyville-Blakesburg Freemont. On the year, the Bears are led by Lexi Klinkkammer with 51 kills, Ava Finley with 54 assists, Delaynie Luneckas with nine blocks and Alyse Klinkkammer with 41 digs. This week, Mid-Prairie head coach Sherry Evans talked about her team’s recent play and getting ready for the Bears. “Against Washington, we came out hard and never let up. Ella Groenewold set the tone early with some great kills. From our passing to our hitting, setting, running our tempo offense, everything improved.  Dakota Mitchell is very coachable from the service line and she got a run of 14 or 15 in a row. West Branch is always very competitive. Looking at their numbers, they have one hitter they like to go through. If we can shut her down with our blocking game and continue our good play on serve/receive we can put the pressure back on them.”

West Branch has won 17 in a row against the Golden Hawks with Mid-Prairie’s last win coming in 2008. Action starts tonight at 7:15 at West Branch High School.