The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk volleyball team invades hostile territory tonight when they travel to West Liberty for a River Valley Conference contest with the Comets. Mid-Prairie comes into the match with an 8-4 overall record, 1-0 in the RVC. The Hawks are ranked No. 10 in Class 3A in this week’s poll from the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union. Mid-Prairie went 2-3 over the weekend at the Mount Vernon tournament, scoring wins over Waverly-Shell Rock and Ottumwa while falling to Center Point-Urbana, Dyersville-Beckman and Des Moines Christian. On the season, sophomore Dakota Mitchell leads the way for the Hawks with 144 digs, third in 3A, senior Landry Pacha has 105 assists with 65 kills and freshman Jovi Evans has 101 assists to go with her 62 kills.

West Liberty comes into the match with a mark of 10-2 on the year. The Comets are 1-0 in the RVC and ranked No. 3 in Class 3A according to the latest poll from the IGHSAU. West Liberty swept to the tournament championship on Saturday in Muscatine, going 4-0 with wins over New London, Burlington, Williamsburg and the home Muskies. For the season, the Comets are led by senior Brooklyn Buysse with 245 assists, fourth in 3A, senior Monica Morales with 209 digs, most in 3A, and sophomore Sophie Buysse with 80 kills. This week, Golden Hawk head coach Sherry Evans talked about her team’s keys against West Liberty. “They are very well coached, they are very athletic. They do a great job of moving the ball around. We need to come out ready to play. We can’t start slow and try to finish strong. Offensively, we have to keep the ball quick. Our serve/receive has to be on point so we can go at them and try to get them out of system. Our serving has got to be on. I know their serving percent is above 90 and ours isn’t quite at 90.”

The Comets have won 25 in a row over Mid-Prairie, with the Golden Hawks last win in the series coming in 2009. Action starts tonight at 7:15p.m. at West Liberty High School.