Golden Hawks sweep Demons

The Mid-Prairie volleyball team came out firing on all cylinders on Thursday evening.

The early Golden Hawk attack powered them to a straight-set victory over the Washington volleyball team, spoiling the team?s season- and home-opener.

?The thing I was the most happy about was that we kept playing our game,? Mid-Prairie head coach Cindi Miller said. ?We had a few errors, but when we did get down and had a few mistakes, they were able to come back. They were able to problem-solve themselves, which is a good thing.?

The Golden Hawks continued their strong start to the year, improving to 4-0 after the win, while Washington fell to 0-1 on the year.

?The only goals we set as a team to accomplish last night were to smile, believe in ourselves, and have fun,? Washington?s first-year head coach Lexa Mahr said. ?The girls definitely accomplished that.?

The Golden Hawks were dominant in the first set of the match, cruising to a 25-6 victory, before the Demons rebounded in the second set.

Down 24-13, Washington caught a break from a Mid-Prairie error, and went on a run to start closing the gap.

After a few Washington points, Mid-Prairie sophomore Jaedynn Evans (15 kills on the night) settled the Golden Hawks down and put an end to the Demon rally, using a kill to give her team a victory, 25-17.

?Her court awareness and level of play is great,? Miller said. ?Everyone has confidence in her, and so when she says something, we know we can get it done.?

In set three, the Golden Hawks kept their foot on the pedal, finishing off the match with a 25-15 set win.

For the Demons, Mahr said the Demons showed many positives that she hopes they can build on moving forward.

?I was very impressed with our passing on serve receive,? Mahr said. ?We have spent a lot of time at practice working on it, so as a coach it was great to see their hard work pay off. We need to work on a few little things and clean up our unforced errors to become more successful.?

Behind Evans? 15 kills, Ali Butters also notched 11 for the Golden Hawks, while Clarice Murphy recorded 22 assists.

Senior libero Amanda Miller led the team with 11 digs, while Evans notched 10 on the night and Butters recorded a team-best four blocks on the night.

Miller was perfect on her serves, going 17-for-17 with an ace, while Alison Yoder picked up two aces on 16-of-17 serving.

Mid-Prairie will resume action on Sept. 6 when they host Durant.

Washington will take part in a tournament at Grinnell on Saturday, where they will take on Centerville, Clear Creek-Amana and Iowa Valley throughout the day.

When looking at the tournament, Mahr said she hopes to see the team limit its mistakes and continue improving.

?Going into Saturday?s tournament we plan to focus on what we are doing on our side of the net and not worry so much about the other teams,? Mahr said. ?We look to get better with each match we play.?