Photo Courtesy of MP Sports Social Media (Nicole Miller)

The No. 12 in Class 3A Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk volleyball team rolled through their regional opener Tuesday in Wellman, sweeping the Saydel Eagles. The Hawks took the match by scores of 25-10, 25-4 and 25-6. The Golden Hawks had 36 assists, 36 kills and 19 aces as a team, with a 95% serve efficiency. Individual leaders included sophomore Jovi Evans with 24 assists, eight kills, and six aces, senior Reese Good with four digs and juniors Brylee Gearhart and Callie Huber with a block each. After the match Evans, Huber, Dakota Mitchell and Avery Helmuth talked about what led the Hawks to success. Evans said, “We didn’t know if the ball would be coming back over or not. So when it did, we knew that we needed to terminate. That was my job tonight. When it did come back, it was my job to get them the good set so they could terminate. What we emphasized this week was playing at a high level. We knew tonight we needed to stay focused and consistent.”

Helmuth added, “Serving, I just brought more confidence to the table. Today we started early and practiced before the match, just to get our minds right.”

Mitchell continued, “We just wanted to hammer on them. Make a statement. People look at the scores. Come out strong and play our game. I need to stay deep more for the middle back position so I tried to focus on that today. This feels good. I feel like we played how we play. We played loose, we had a lot of fun. It felt good to get the first one!”

Huber concluded, “We needed to stay strong and focused. I tried to hit smarter shots and work on tipping stuff.”

The win is Mid-Prairie’s 30th of the season against 10 losses. Saydel ends the year at 3-21. The Golden Hawks are back on the court in Thursday’s regional semifinal at Tim Grady Gymnasium in Wellman against 18-13 Prairie City Monroe.