It was a rough outing for local SEISC schools at the conference volleyball tournament, with each failing to win a game in the pool-play format. 

The conference separated into four pools on Thursday night, with the top two in each pool advancing to the quarterfinals, played on Saturday at  Southeastern Community College in Burlington. 

Highland and Hillcrest Academy went 0-4 in five-team pools. Lone Tree went 0-3 in their four team pool. 

The eventual winner on Saturday night was Class 2A No. 6 Mediapolis, who swept Class 2A No. 4 Van Buren 25-23, 25-11 in the conference tournament title game and stayed undefeated at 23-0 this season. 

Lone Tree

On Thursday night, Lone Tree hosted to Central Lee, Winfield-Mount Union and Cardinal in a mix of teams from the North and South Divisions.

They led off with Central Lee, and while showing competitive signs they fell 2-0 (21-11, 21-10). 

In the first set, Lone Tree took took four straight points to bring the game within 12-10 and Central Lee took a timeout to discuss the Lone Tree run. The run was fueled by an ace and kill from Lily Miller along with a nice hit from Holley Johnson. 

The timeout from Central Lee refocused the Lady Hawks as they won nine out of the next 10 points to finish out the set 21-11. The Lone Tree offense struggled to get in their offensive system over the final stretch.

Central Lee cruised out to an early lead in the second set and won 21-10 to give Lone Tree their first loss. 

Next up was Winfield-Mount Union, who started out the match with 9-2 lead before a Miller kill woke up the Lions’ side. A few errors by the Wolves combined with a rally-saving dig by Alyssa Knock brought Lone Tree within five at 10-5. Winfield-Mount Union went on to close out the set 21-10. 

Down 15-10 in the second set, Lone Tree won five of six to bring the set within one at 16-15. The streak was started off with Skylar Smith’s first kill of the match. A pair of service errors doomed the Lions and they were swept by the Wolves with the 21-17 loss in the second set. 

Cardinal was their final match of the day, with Lone Tree falling 21-7, 21-8.

Central Lee and Cardinal were the two teams from Lone Tree that advanced to the quarterfinals. Central Lee finished in fourth place. 

Highland

Highland traveled to eventual champion Mediapolis for their pool play, going 0-4 and struggling against tougher competition. 

The Huskies were swept by Danville (21-8, 21-13), West Burlington (21-6, 21-14), Mediapolis (21-8, 21-12) and WACO (21-9, 21-14). 

Hillcrest Academy

Hillcrest’s quest for their first win came up short at Burlington Notre Dame as the Ravens went 0-4 in their pool. 

The Ravens pushed Columbus to the limit, but came up short 23-21, 21-7. In that match the Ravens had six players with one kill. Malia Sedlacek had eight digs and four aces against the Wildcats. 

In the Ravens 21-14, 21-6 loss to Wapello, sophomore Norah Yoder had four kills on four attack attempts for her best match of the season. She also had three digs and went 2-2 from the service line. 

Hillcrest lost 21-3, 21-3 to Van Buren and 21-4, 21-10 to Notre Dame.