STORY CITY
Mid-Prairie’s volleyball dream ended Tuesday night inside a packed high school gym 150 miles away from home.
A 25-14, 25-17, 26-28, 25-12 win gave 3A 10th-ranked Roland-Story a regional championship and sent the Norsemen to next week’s state tournament at Xtream Arena in Coralville.
For the first time in three years, the Golden Hawks won’t make it to the state tournament.
But for a fifth consecutive year, the Golden Hawks were in a regional tournament final, and that’s why tears flowed in the team’s postgame huddle on the court as just a few feet away, Roland-Story’s players celebrated their Region 6 title in the midst of a homecourt mob.
“We were in the fire a lot,” co-head coach Zeb Evans said of the team’s 21-win season, “and the girls like learned to enjoy it. I’m really proud of where they started at and where they came.”
Jeorgia Evans, a Mid-Prairie junior who is already an Iowa State verbal commit, had a team-high 16 kills. Elise Foster, a sophomore, had a team-high 22 digs. Lydia Witthoft, a freshman, had a team-high 18 assists.
Those stats tell a deeper story about a team that posted its fifth straight season of 21 wins or more, and just last week eliminated WaMaC power and seventh-ranked Center Point-Urbana in the 3A regionals for the second year in a row. The only senior with regular playing time, Morgyn Bender, had never played high school volleyball before this year. The rest were rising stars, including eighth grader Jaycee Flynn, to set the foundation for 2027 while not giving up on 2026.
“That’s definitely setting the standard for next season coming in because of how young we are,” Jeorgia Evans said.
“It was awesome,” Flynn said. “I made a lot of new friends for next year and I’m less nervous for being a (rising) freshman.”
The Golden Hawks lost the first two sets, but answered Roland-Story with a dramatic 28-26 win in the third set. After a block by Roland-Story tied the score at 26, the Golden Hawks won the next two points to capture the third set and force a fourth set.
The Norsemen scored the first five points of the fourth set, creating a hole the Golden Hawks could not climb out of. A kill by Evans brought Mid-Prairie to within three points, 9-6, but Roland-Story pulled away after that. Most of Evans’ kill attempts were met with double blockers, including Roland-Story’s Maddi Lucas (3 blocks), Emma Truesdell (2 blocks) and Charlotte Schaben (4 blocks).
“They did a really good job of getting a hand on her,” Mid-Prairie coach Sherry Evans said. “They figured Jeorgia out when early on she was tipping right over the block. They moved the center up and adjusted to what we were doing to them.”
Brookelyn Jondle, a Roland-Story senior, had a match-high 21 kills.
“That team just outplayed us,” Sherry Evans said.
The Norsemen (36-9) advanced to the 3A state tournament as the No. 8 seed. They’ll face top-seeded Western Christian (38-5) in the quarterfinal round Tuesday at 10 a.m.
River Valley Conference champion Wilton (36-4) is the No. 7 seed and will play No. 2 MOC-Floyd Valley (31-7) at 10:35 a.m. Tuesday. The River Valley’s other state qualifier, Beckman Catholic (38-4), is the No. 3 seed in the 2A tournament and will face No. 6 Denver (26-14) at 4:35 p.m. Tuesday.
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