It was a perfect night for the Keota Eagle volleyball team Monday in both the figurative and literal sense.
The Eagles swept their way to their home tournament championship. Keota put together a 3-0 night that saw them vanquish Lone Tree in three 16-21, 21-10 and 16-14, top Tri-County 22-25, 25-7 and 15-11 before beating out Hillcrest in the championship match 13-21, 21-18 and 15-11. After the night, Eagle captain Cassandra Swantz spoke with KCII sports about what led the Eagles to the title and how it felt to win the championship. “We were ecstatic. The last time we went to the championship was my sophomore year as a libero. We played Mid-Prairie and it was a pretty heartbreaking loss. So we really wanted this one. All of our hard work paid off. It’s so incredible to be able to do this with my best friends and teammates. There’s this thing that I like to say, small ball. I always tell the girls ‘first to five, first to 10, first to 15, first to 20’. That’s how we pulled through. We were having so much fun, it was incredible! We were all so excited, we have wanted this for so long, and we worked so hard for this! We were ready for it to happen and then the next thing you know the point is ours. We were all so in the game we were just like ‘Oh my goodness, they just hit it out. That’s our championship’! We won our school tournament. So amazing, I’m so happy!”
The runner-up Ravens were 2-1 to start their season. Despite the setback in the title match, the Ravens swept their way through pool play, beating English Valleys 16-21, 21-17 and 15-13 and handling Highland 21-19 and 21-17.
The Huskies were third in their own right after a 2-1 night. It was two wins for Highland aside from their loss to Hillcrest as the Huskies beat English Valleys 21-13 and 21-16 and topped Tri-County in the third place match 21-13 and 21-15.
It was a tough start to the season for Lone Tree as the Lady Lions dropped their three contests. Along with a loss to the Eagles, Lone Tree was beaten by Tri-County 21-19 and 21-10 and English Valleys 21-18 and 21-19.