Daily Newsletters
Account
Washington Evening Journal
111 North Marion Avenue
Washington, IA 52353
319-653-2191
Mid-Prairie punches ticket to state
Golden Hawks win thriller over Center Point-Urbana
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
WELLMAN — It had been 789 days since Mid-Prairie last found itself in a fifth set.
A few of the Golden Hawks’ seniors remember that match, a 2-3 loss to West Branch in late August 2023. They also remember how that season ended, with a 1-3 defeat to Center Point-Urbana in the Class 3A Region 6 championship.
When Mid-Prairie entered the fifth set against the Stormin Pointers on Tuesday in the 3A-7 championship, it was determined to write a different story than the outcomes that bookended its season two years ago.
Mid-Prairie did exactly that. It stormed out to a 7-2 lead in the 15-point fifth set and secured a 3-2 (23-25, 25-11, 25-17, 21-25, 15-12) win to crown itself regional champions.
“I had no doubt,” Mid-Prairie co-head coach Sherry Evans said. “I knew we were going to win that fifth set. When we were coming (into) it, I just knew.”
The Golden Hawks punched their second ticket to state in as many seasons. There was a mixture of relief and elation between the players, coaches and Mid-Prairie students, who stormed the court after Laurin Fay blocked a CPU kill attempt for the match-winning point.
Students joined the Mid-Prairie players for photo ops with the green banner commemorating the Golden Hawks run through the 3A-7 region. Mid-Prairie took down Davis County and West Liberty 3-0 in the first two rounds to reach Tuesday’s championship.
“It was so fun,” Harper Pacha said with a smile surrounded by her fellow Mid-Prairie seniors. “Of course we had to go five sets, and we knew that last point that the hard work finally paid off.”
Senior Jovi Evans scored five of the Golden Hawks first seven points in the final set and finished with a team-high 25 kills. Evans took over portions of the match and was everywhere on the court. She paired her kill tally with 25 digs, 18 assists and three blocks.
The Golden Hawks were also fueled by strong effort in the back row to keep points alive. Sophomore Jeorgia Evans crashed into the padding along the wall behind Mid-Prairie’s service line after chasing down the ball to keep a point alive in the fifth set. Mid-Prairie won the rally to go up 13-10.
Evans’ 27 digs were only bested by freshman Libero Elise Foster’s 31. Senior Avery Helmuth added 15 and sophomore Claire Trimpe had 13.
“Our goal was don’t let the ball hit the floor, just don’t let it drop, and the girls did a really good job of just scrapping up everything,” Sherry Evans said. “When the other team thought it was going to go down, we picked it up somehow.”
The Golden Hawks could have easily rolled over and given all the momentum back to the visitors after the fourth set. CPU had its best start to a set when it took a 13-7 lead.
However, Mid-Prairie made it as difficult as it could for CPU to avoid the reverse sweep. The Golden Hawks scratched and clawed their way back to tie it at 17. Jeorgia Evans almost landed in the first row of the student section when she dove and punched the ball back over her head to Katelyn Harland, who poked it over the net to make it 13-10 CPU. Harland joined Jovi Evans in double figures for kills with 10.
The Golden Hawks went into the locker room unfazed after CPU closed the set with an 8-4 run. They found the same energy to start the fifth as they did to rebound from a tense opening set.
Neither team held a lead larger than three points in Set 1. Like the fourth, CPU was able to close, but the Stormin Pointers didn’t break Mid-Prairie’s spirit. Co-head coach Zeb Evans said the mood in the locker room was as calm as he’s seen it between sets all season.
“We called it our warm-up game,” Jovi Evans said. “So we kind of got all the nerves, all the jitters (out) and everything, and then we came back in the second set and we really took care of business.”
Mid-Prairie held CPU to just 28 points over the next two sets. Harland had three kills and an ace in the third. Fay logged a kill to make it 13-5 after a lengthy rally and had one of her team-high five blocks for the Golden Hawks 24th point.
The Golden Hawks spread the wealth in the second set. A 13-7 start ballooned into a 20-9 lead before a 5-2 run quickly tied the match 1-1. Mid-Prairie got production from across the court and its bench Tuesday, which the coaches praised for keeping the energy up when the team needed it most.
“We challenged our bench probably three weeks ago to make a difference and they rose to the occasion,” Zeb Evans said. “They found a way. They got together. They found cheers. They found a way to bring excitement and really make their role valuable, and they did a great job of that.”
Mid-Prairie will look to build off its five-set win and make a run on the biggest stage of Iowa high school volleyball. The Golden Hawks (30-9) will face Assumption (25-7) in the state quarterfinal round at 10:25 a.m. Nov. 4 inside Xtream Arena in Coralville.
