WEST LIBERTY

The hallway outside Mid-Prairie’s locker room was silent following a volleyball loss at River Valley rival West Liberty on September 12.

One by one, Golden Hawk players left the locker room quietly for the bus, dodging happy West Liberty players through that hallway on the way to the parking lot.

Co-coaches Sherry and Zeb Evans stood off to the side, wondering how the sixth-ranked Hawks would respond following a four-set loss to a team that was ranked lower than Mid-Prairie in Class 3A but had defeated the Golden Hawks for the 29^th time in 30 matches.

“I mean, if they don’t come back with a burning desire to be better, then we’re not the team we thought we were,” Zeb Evans said.

The answer came just two days later, Saturday in the Live Like Line Tournament hosted by Iowa City West. Playing higher-ranked teams in bigger classes all day, the Golden Hawks won the Silver Division title, defeating Cedar Rapids Prairie, ranked No. 10 in 5A, in straight sets in the final match.

After losing pool-play games to Ankeny, ranked No. 2 in 5A, and Clear Creek Amana, ranked No. 3 in 4A, the Golden Hawks defeated Grinnell, ranked No. 12 in 4A, and CR Prairie.

Until the second set began in West Liberty, the Golden Hawks, who were ranked above the Comets perhaps for the first time in history, were on fire. A streak of 11 points in the opening set sent Mid-Prairie to an almost too easy 25-13 win. It was their 14^th consecutive set win.

“We were very intense and we ran with a lot of speed,” Zeb Evans said.

The point streak featured back-to-back kills by junior Jovi Evans, a rally for a point that featured incredible defensive saves by seniors Dakota Mitchell and Lanee Duwa, and a pair of point-winning blocks by Brylee Gearhart.

The Comets fell apart in that opening set, but came back strongly after that. They scored seven of the first nine points in the second set and pulled away with a 25-18 win to tie the match. They won the next two sets by scores of 25-19, falling behind the Golden Hawks just once.

“I think we might have just kind of took for granted that they were going to kind of lay down,” Zeb Evans said. “And they didn’t. They came back stronger. They outworked us.”

Jovi Evans had a double-double performance, including a match-high 16 kills to go along with her team-high 17 assists.

Mid-Prairie had more kills (45) and more blocks (9), but still 12^th-ranked West Liberty found a way to capture three consecutive sets.

Sophie Buysse led West Liberty with 13 kills, Emma Yoder had a match-high 36 assists and Gabriella Morales had a match-high 33 digs.

Mid-Prairie junior Harper Pacha had 12 kills and a pair of serving aces, and Avery Helmuth added 14 assists. Mitchell had 26 digs.

Live Like Line Tourney

After losing two of three pool matches to highly-ranked teams in Classes 5A and 4A, the Golden Hawks defeated Grinnell in three sets and swept CR Prairie to win the Silver Bracket at the Live Like Line Tournament held Sept. 14 at Iowa City West.

Mid-Prairie defeated CR Prairie 26-24 and 25-16 after Prairie had beaten host IC West to reach the Silver final.

The Golden Hawks lost the opening set of their semifinal match against Grinnell, 25-23, but responded with 25-17 and 15-7 wins in the next two sets.

The Golden Hawks defeated CR Washington, a 5A team, in pool play by scores of 21-13, 21-17.

Mid-Prairie played only 5A and 4A teams all day, defeating three of them. Of its five losses this season, all of them were to ranked teams.

Harper Pacha had a team-high 9 kills in the win over CR Prairie and Jovi Evans had 28 assists and a pair of kills. Callie Huber added 7 kills.

Dakota Mitchell had 15 digs against CR Prairie, and 79 in five matches. Freshman Jeorgia Evans had a strong defensive day, including totaling a match-high 22 digs in a three-set loss to CCA.