The Hillcrest Academy Raven volleyball team posted their second Southeast Iowa Superconference victory of the season last night in Kalona, topping the Pekin Panthers in four sets. The Ravens came up winners by scores of 25-17, 25-21, 19-25 and 25-13. Hillcrest head coach Brandon Statler talked after the match about the victory. “Pekin was gaining momentum in set two and we stopped it. We came back and put pressure on their back row. They continued in set three, mixed with some service and serve receive errors, we struggled again and they got their only set win on the night. We can’t seem to close out matches easily. We keep it exciting. So we came back in set four and pulled everything together. We have to learn to finish, we can’t just trust that it’s going to happen on it’s own. I thought the senior leadership was on point tonight. Every time we got down they were listening and applying our keys on the court.”

On the night, Hillcrest was led by Esther Hughes with nine kills, Norah Yoder had 20 assists and Evelyn Gerber 10 digs. This is the Raven’s first multi conference win season since 2018. Hillcrest is next in action Thursday when they host Wapello.