Photo Courtesy of Mid-Prairie Volleyball Social Media
The tenth biggest story from the last school year for Mid-Prairie athletics spotlights a program that continues to see momentum and increased success. After five wins in 2017-18, the Golden Hawk volleyball team has seen an increase in victories and competitiveness each season, in 2022, they took an enormous step forward. After a 16-14 2021, the Golden Hawks put together a 27 win campaign last year, their most wins since 2004.
Mid-Prairie reached several milestones during the season. The Hawks snapped a 14 year losing streak to West Branch and a six year losing streak to the Wilton Beavers. They won their 10th straight match over rival Washington and swept Iowa City Regina on the Regals Senior Night. The Golden Hawks won six matches over ranked teams and spent more than half of the season in the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union top 15 for Class 3A themselves, rising as high as No. 10, before finishing the year at No. 11. Mid-Prairie finished as 7-2 runners-up in the RVC South and advanced to the championship match of the River Valley Conference tournament for the first time in school history. The Hawks won a pair of playoff matches to advance to the regional finals for the first time in 18 seasons.
The Golden Hawks piled up the hardware including four All-River Valley Conference selections with first teamers senior Landry Pacha, sophomore Dakota Mitchell and freshman Jovi Evans. Senior Ella Groenewold was honorable mention RVC. Those four also were named to the Iowa Girls Coaches Association Class 3A All-District team and Mitchell was named IGCA third team All-State. Head coach Sherry Evans was named Coach of the Year in both the River Valley South Division and the IGCA Class 3A Southeast District.
The numbers were impressive for the Hawks. As a team they were fourth in Class 3A with 1,776 digs, eighth with 244 aces, ninth with 1,016 kills, 10th with 940 assists and 10th with 2,862 attempts. Individual stat leaders included Pacha with 47 aces, second most in the River Valley and a 94.2% efficiency rate from the service line. She compiled a team best 264 kills, fourth most in the league with a 10th in the RVC .249% kill efficiency rate. Her 407 assists were best on the team and seventh in the conference. She finished with 254 digs and 28 blocks, both 10th in the conference. Groenewold posted a team best 77 blocks, second in the River Valley with 153 kills and a .385 kill efficiency rating, sixth in Class 3A. Mitchell finished the season averaging 6.5 digs per set, tied for most in the state. Her total of 630 digs this season were second in the state, reaching the 1,000 career dig milestone in October. Evans compiled a combined total of 961 assists, kills, digs and aces this season, most by any 3A freshman.
The Golden Hawks finished the year with a 27-12 record. Tomorrow we’ll be back with our ninth biggest story from Mid-Prairie sports last year which highlights the Golden Hawk girls soccer team.