The momentum from Hillcrest’s first win of the season on Saturday carried right over to the Ravens’ second match. 

Everything was clicking for the Ravens, who took down Louisa-Muscatine 21-11 in the first set, and 21-17 in the second to open the Burlington Notre Dame Tournament with back-to-back wins. 

“In these quads, we’ve been playing our best volleyball first, but always had the toughest match right off the bat,” Hillcrest coach Brandon Statler explained. “Then we would finish the last two matches somewhat deflated. Saturday that trend was reversed.”  

The Ravens opened up with a 22-20, 21-14 victory over Centerville to get in the win column for the first time this year.

Malia Yoder was 12 for 13 serving with three aces,she also had four kills and no errors on six attempts in the win. Esther Hughes had four kills as well and Vlada Conea had three for a balanced attack. Norah Yoder had 13 assists and two kills in the two-set win. 

Hughes led the Ravens with seven kills and five aces in the win over L-M. Kylee Statler had a kill and two blocks, finishing with eight blocks in four games. 

“We’ve been working on mixing up our attacks to throw off defenses, and also putting up our biggest blocks for entire matches to slow down these huge front lines we’ve been facing,” Statler said. “Saturday we were able to do that in the first two matches, and it showed in our kill line as well as our blocking stats.”

The Ravens fell 21-7, 21-14 to Wapello in their third match and lost to No. 1 Notre Dame 25-8, 25-6 in bracket play. 

 “I was hoping we’d show up right away and the girls came through,” Statler said. “It was emotional for them, they were riding high.  But much like many emotional efforts I’ve witnessed, there was some jet lag in our final two matches as we sat for over two hours waiting for our third match and took a while to get going again.  

“To make the gold bracket of that tournament, though, we will definitely call it a win!”

After taking two out of four on Saturday, the Ravens have a record of 2-8 for the season. 

“Going forward I believe this will go a long way in convincing them that we can be competitive in all of our remaining matches this season if we can continue to give that kind of effort,” Statler said.