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Mid-Prairie falls in 3A quarterfinal
Golden Hawks lose 0-3 to Assumption
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
CORALVILLE — Mid-Prairie volleyball’s excellent season came to an end Tuesday. The No. 7 seed Golden Hawks fell 3-0 (25-19, 25-10, 25-15) to No. 2 seed Assumption in the quarterfinal round of the Class 3A Iowa high school volleyball state tournament.
Assumption put a stranglehold on the match after the first set. The Knights ended on a 5-0 run after Mid-Prairie cut their lead to 20-19, and left their opponent in the rear view mirror from there.
Attack and service errors by the Knights provided several points for Mid-Prairie in the third set. But the Golden Hawks couldn’t string together enough momentum to avoid the sweep after starting down 17-9.
“They did a good job staying in system, and our attack wasn’t doing what it needed them do to get out of system so we couldn’t run the middles,” Mid-Prairie co head coach Sherry Evans said after the match. “So, that was our game plan and it just didn’t work out.”
Mid-Prairie entered the match ranked No. 1 in Class 3A in digs, but struggled to handle Assumption’s tempo and talented hitters. The Knights came out swinging to start the second set and took a 15-4 lead that ballooned to 21-8.
Ellah Derrer racked up 16 kills for the Knights. Erin Robbins had 10. Assumption was also assertive at the net with eight blocks to Mid-Prairie’s four.
“We knew their block was going to be big coming in,” Mid-Prairie senior Jovi Evans said. “Ella, in the middle, is really good. She's going to (Kansas State), so we knew coming in that we needed to gun on her, and do our job with her, but she kind of just overpowered us today.”
Mid-Prairie did make Assumption work for one point during the Knights 5-0 close to the first set. A few outstanding digs by the Golden Hawks gave them a chance to take momentum back, but the Knights would ultimately secure a critical point to make it 22-19 after Evans sent a ball just beyond Assumption’s service line.
The Golden Hawks never trailed by more than three points before Assumption’s final surge. They took their first lead of the match at 6-5, but a disciplined Knights squad was able to prevent Mid-Prairie from cashing in its hustle plays to build a lead.
“We didn’t control the ball very well and we needed to in a situation like this,” co head coach Zeb Evans said. “We couldn’t give them free points.”
Jovi Evans led Mid-Prairie with seven kills, four of which came in the first set. Senior Katelyn Harland added six kills.
Defensively, sophomore Jeorgia Evans led the Golden Hawks with 14 digs. Freshman Elise Foster added 11, and had a perfect day at the service line going 7 of 7 with two aces.
Mid-Prairie ends its season at 30-10. Though it wasn’t able to make it past the first hurdle at state, the Golden Hawks have plenty to be proud of, having won 63 matches over the past two seasons to make back-to-back trips to Coralville’s Xtream Arena.
“We wouldn’t trade out anybody for anybody throughout this whole tournament,” Zeb Evans said. “We would still pick the same 15 we have because they’re the girls that have dug into this program and it’s been four years of fighting to really move the program forward.”
Zeb and Sherry Evans both expressed their excitement about the immediate and long term future for the Golden Hawks. Sherry pointed to the high attendance numbers at Mid-Prairie’s summer volleyball camps and the growth of the junior high program. As for next season, Foster and Jeorgia Evans will have major roles once again after starting every match in 2025.
Mid-Prairie’s six departing seniors have also noticed the ripple effects of their achievements. The next crop of players have big shoes to fill on the court, but they also have a blueprint to sustain the team’s high standard after watching the Golden Hawks upperclassmen find and maintain success over the past four seasons.
“It didn’t end how we wanted it to end,” senior Avery Helmuth said. “But we did really good this season and we’re very proud of our team and how far that we’ve come as a program to where we’ve been, making our name known. It’s pretty awesome.”
