A long wait came to an end for the Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk volleyball team Thursday, and it ended with a statement. In front of a raucous crowd at Tim Grady Gymnasium, No. 10 in Class 3A Mid-Prairie topped West Branch in a River Conference sweep in Wellman by scores of 26-24, 25-20 and 25-18. The victory for the Hawks over the Bears was their first in the series since 2008, breaking an 18 match losing streak to their River Valley rivals. After the match, Golden Hawk seniors Ella Groenewold and Landry Pacha talked with KCII Sports about the night, the team’s focus, and the win. “We definitely started out slow. We had a lot of missed serves but once we got back in the groove, our passes came together. Dakota (Mitchell) and our back row were great. Then the sets started happening and the hitters found the holes.  Even though the first set was close we were able to pull through, win it, and start strong. Definitely effort and attitude are important. Dominating every point. Getting our serve receive together. First pass is always important, then we can finally run our offense with our tempo. We haven’t beat West Branch in forever so it felt really good to do it this year, our senior year. It’s really great. This was our first step to really starting off our season strong. We came out and we did a great job of showing that we are a new and improved team.”

With the victory, the Hawks are now 5-1 on the season and travel to the Mount Vernon Tournament Saturday.