Photo Courtesy of Jeff Yoder

The Hillcrest Academy Raven volleyball team looks to take the next step in the regional tournament tonight when they host Belle Plaine in a Class 1A Regional Quarterfinal at Hillcrest Union. The Ravens stand at 20-10 this season, their first 20-win season since 2013, after a three set sweep of Keota in the opening round Monday where they were led by 22 assists for Claire Withrow, 12 digs and eight kills from Malia Yoder and three aces from Lydia Beachy. On the season, the Ravens have 1173 digs, 777 kills, 639 assists, 232 aces, 9th in Class 1A and 87 blocks with a .222 kill efficiency rating, 10th best in 1A. Individual Hillcrest leaders include Withrow with 614 assists, Yoder with 347 digs, 322 kills and 56 aces and Kylee Statler with 35 blocks.

Belle Plaine comes into the contest with a 16-13 overall record, champions of the East Division of the South Iowa Cedar League. They advanced with a Monday sweep of English Valleys. This season, the Plaineswomen have 1113 digs, 532 kills, 460 assists, 210 aces, 118 blocks and a .140 kill efficiency. Individually, Allison Hoover is best with 413 assists, Kayleah Laughlin has 238 digs, 228 kills, 66 aces, 9th in Class 1A and 33 blocks. This week, Hillcrest head coach Brandon Statler talked with KCII Sports about the keys to his team’s success Wednesday.

Statler said, “If we can spread the ball around like we did against Keota Monday, we had five hitters with kills, Malia (Yoder), Kylee (Statler) and Niva (Helmuth) each had six, seven or eight, Zoey (Curtiss) had four or five and Ruth (Witthoft) had some good swings. When you can use five hitters successfully, we can beat anyone. When we can play mistake free volleyball and get better as the night goes on using all those hitters, that’s the deciding factor.”

These teams have not met since 2013, a Raven sweep. The winner of this match advances to the Class 1A Regional Semifinals to meet the winner of No. 5 North Tama and HLV. Action starts tonight at 7p.m. at Hillcrest Union.