The Hillcrest Academy Raven volleyball team saw their season draw to a close Monday night in the opening round of the Class 1A playoffs, falling by sweep at English Valleys. The Bears beat the Ravens 25-15, 25-21 and 25-16. Sophomore Claire Withrow led the Ravens with 17 assists, junior Malia Yoder had 14 digs and 13 kills. junior Niva Helmuth had two blocks and junior Lydia Beachy two aces. Following the match, head coach Brandon Statler talked about what he saw as the deciding factors in the match. Statler said, “(English Valleys) is senior loaded. They are in their comfort zone at home and those things got to our girls. We had 30 errors tonight, and that won’t win many matches. We were playing really good to keep it close, but that won’t win either. In the second set, we really focused on what was working. Malia (Yoder) was phenomenal, as she has been all year. Volleyball is a game of  mistakes. If you can cut your mistakes you can get it turned around. Tonight, we really could not adjust.”

With the loss, the Ravens end their season at 10-14. English Valleys is now 15-14 and moves on the to the 1A Regional Quarterfinals Thursday for a road match with No. 10 Don Bosco.