Masks up, volleyballs down

WASHINGTON - Whatever it takes to let sports survive and thrive should be done, especially for the student-athletes.

To that aim at the Demons home opener, Washington High School required all visitors to Thursday's nonconference volleyball match between the Demons and the Mid-Prairie Golden Hawks to wear a mask.

The masks did not keep the student sections from boisterous chants and the Golden Hawks seemed to win that battle in the stands to match the battle on the floor where Mid-Prairie took a 3-0 victory over Washington. Mid-Prairie took a close first set 25-16, then breezed to a second set win 25-10. Washington took control of the third set from the beginning, but the Hawks tied it at 17, 18 and 21 before capturing the first lead of the set at 22-21 and eked out the win 25-22.

'We started out hard and playing well, but we got overconfident and let up,” Mid-Prairie head coach Sherry Evans said. 'Then I'll called time, we got it dialed back in and came back to get them.”

An Olivia Marek kill gave the Demons an 8-4 when Evans called her first timeout of the third set. After Emma Nichols' ace and Brynn Beenblossom's kill, the Demons led by more at Evans' second timeout, 14-8. Washington called time after a Tori Boyse kill shrunk the lead to 15-14.

The final point of the match was a kill by Boyse, but as she landed from her jump, she fell. Concerned coaches and teammates rushed to her side, only to see her rise from the floor laughing.

'I came down and my ankle just kind of ate it,” Boyse said. 'I did not sprain it though and it gave us all a laugh, so it was worth it I guess.”

The floor was slippery from numerous Golden Hawk attempts to refuse to let the ball hit the floor on their side of the net.

'Our defense is great with three scrappy players back there,” Evans said about Amber Swart, Maddie Edgington and Paige Peiffer. 'I think they're going to be one of the better back rows.”

The victory was special for the Golden Hawks for numerous reasons.

'It means more to beat Washington because they are our rivals,” said Boyse, who as a senior has not lost to Washington in her four years playing varsity. 'Four in a row, that's awesome.”

Mid-Prairie senior Phelan Hostetler played at Washington as a sophomore.

'We know she wanted to win because she played here, but when she came back, she fit in just fine with us,” Boyse said.

'There is no hard feelings either way and it's just great to come back here to play and see everybody,” Hostetler said. 'I can't believe it's my senior year already. Time really flies. Mid-Prairie is home, so I'm really happy to be where I'm at right now.”

Hostetler appreciated the fact that everyone wore masks to attend the match. Even more she appreciated the fact there was the chance to play.

'More than anything, with Covid and being my senior year, I am just happy to be on the court playing anything anywhere,” she said. 'We could go out tomorrow and that would be our last time on the court.”

The Golden Hawks almost spent another set on the court with the way the Demons played in the third set.

'We waited too long to make adjustments and that's ultimately what killed us,” Washington head coach Lexa Mahr said. 'For the first game, we did very well passing, which was one of my biggest worries before the year and we did very well.”

The Demons committed a lot of service errors but there was a valid reason.

'We did a lot of jump serving which is high risk, high reward and tonight it was the risk part that came out,” Mahr said. 'We did have some aces as well, so we just need some fine-tuning.”

Evans will continue her fine-tuning of the Golden Hawks.

'We will continue to work on fundamentals in practice,” she said. 'Our passing has been spot on and that's an improvement from last year.”

Mid-Prairie is 3-0 and doesn't play until it starts River Valley Conference play Sept. 10 at West Liberty, ranked eighth in Class 3A.

Washington starts Southeast Conference play Thursday at Mt. Pleasant.