The tournament trail starts tonight for the Hillcrest Academy Raven volleyball team when they open the Class 1A regionals at English Valleys against the Bears. Hillcrest is 10-13 on the season, finishing 3-5 and sixth place in the Southeast Iowa Superconference North Division. They closed the regular season with a home sweep of Louisa-Muscatine Tuesday. On the year, the Ravens have 1,031 digs, 537 kills, 465 assists, 195 aces and 87 blocks. Individual leaders include sophomore Claire Withrow with 451 assists, junior Malia Yoder with 288 digs and 196 kills, and junior Kylee Statler with 50 aces and 38 blocks.

English Valleys is 14-14 overall and finished .500 in the South Iowa Cedar League at 5-5. In their last action they beat Keota and lost to Montezuma over the weekend at the SICL championship tournament. This year the Bears have 1,438 digs, 655 kills, 596 assists, 187 aces and 128 blocks. Individual leaders include senior Imigyn Stratton with 297 digs and 183 kills, senior Delaney Hall with 278 assists and 42 aces, and freshman Ava Gehrking with 60 blocks. This week Ravens Zoey Curtiss, Erin Bontrager, Niva Helmuth, Adrianne Blauvelt and Tara Poole joined KCII Sports to talk about their game plan for success in the playoffs. They said, “We really need to focus on our first pass, just getting the ball up so that we can get a good set and a good kill. We need to be aggressive. A lot of times we have been settling for side passes and the aggressive things are what get us points. We also need to stay focused on the game and keeping each other up. Stay confident through the whole match. Flow with the ball and talking a lot more.”

These teams split their two meetings with one another this season. Action gets underway tonight at 7p.m. at English Valleys High School.