Photo Courtesy of MP CSD Social Media

The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk volleyball team looks to take the next step in the postseason tonight when they host the Prairie City Monroe Mustangs in the semifinal round of the Class 3A Regional Tournament. The Hawks come into the match with a 30-10 overall record after a quarterfinal sweep of Saydel in Wellman Tuesday. Mid-Prairie piled up 36 assists, 36 kills and 19 aces as a team in their playoff opener while serving 95% as a group from the back line. sophomore Jovi Evans led the way with 24 assists, eight kills and six aces. Senior Reese Good added four digs and juniors Brylee Gearhart and Callie Huber each had a block. On the season, Mid-Prairie has piled up 1,891 digs, most in 3A, 1,211 kills, second in 3A, 1,186 assists, most in 3A, 271 aces, most in 3A and 212 blocks. Individual leaders include Evans with 625 assists, 349 kills, 10th in 3A, and 61 aces fourth in 3A. Junior Dakota Mitchell leads Iowa with her 590 digs and this week’s JET Physical Therapy Athlete of the Week Callie Huber has 69 blocks.

Prairie City Monroe is 18-13 this year after sweeping Chariton to open their regional run Tuesday. For the year, the Mustangs have 1,109 digs, 646 kills, 562 assists, 231 aces, sixth in 3A and 106 blocks. Individual leaders for PCM include senior Elaina Buswell with 462 assists, junior Addison Steenhoek with 327 digs and 48 aces, and junior Rebecca DeVries with 195 kills and 40 blocks. This week, Mid-Prairie head coach Sherry Evans joined the KCII PM Sports Page to talk about her team’s keys against PCM. Evans said, “It’s important to maintain that focus and do all of the little things correctly. Position ourselves so we can dig every ball. Serve receive has to be money. Getting our serves over and in is very important. If you don’t do that, you don’t have the opportunity to score. We definitely want to minimize giving them any free balls. We want to get third ball attacks and we’ve done well at doing that all year.”

The winner of this contest advances to Tuesday’s Class 3A Regional final with a bid to the state tournament in Coralville on the line. Action between the Mustangs and Hawks starts tonight at 7p.m. at Tim Grady Gymnasium in Wellman.