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Mid-Prairie volleyball ousts Wilton, punches ticket to state
Golden Hawks end 20 year state drought
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
WELLMAN — They had been there before, the 3A Regional Final.
The past two years, Mid-Prairie has come up just short of a state tournament appearance after falling on the road.
This time, on their home court, in front of a packed crowed of black and gold faithful, the Golden Hawks lifted the banner.
Downing Wilton 25-22, 21-25, 25-14 and 25-23.
“All of our hard work has paid off,” Mid-Prairie senior Dakota Mitchell said. “We’ve been so close the past two years. We wanted this one so bad. It feels so good and it was here. Our fans are amazing. At one point, I couldn’t even hear myself. We fed off of the energy.”
In the two’s third meeting of the season, No. 8 Mid-Prairie got the better of No. 10 Wilton for a third time when the stakes were the highest.
It wasn’t an easy road though, but the Golden Hawks came ready for anything.
After fighting through the match tie with a dominant third frame, the Golden Hawks did it in dramatic fashion in a deciding fourth set.
“It feels so amazing,” Mid-Prairie head coach Sherry Evans said. “It feels so good. We’ve been working so hard during our six years coaching. Starting in 2019 and all the girls buying in every year we got better and better and here we are. It shows the girls hard work and they want it.”
The Golden Hawks fell behind 2-0 and then 3-2 from the jump.
Callie Huber hammered back-to-back kills to ignite the Mid-Prairie crowd at 4-3.
However, neither team could find the means to pull away.
Midway through the set, Jovi Evans sent a ball to the floor to give the Golden Hawks the largest lead of the set 12-9.
In all, the two squads tied 12 times through the frame.
At 20-20, Evans and Huber buried the ball once again to give Mid-Prairie a two point cushion with just three points needed to end it.
After a Wilton timeout, the Golden Hawks notched back-to-back hitting errors to tie things back up.
The Golden Hawks immediately called timeout and they did what they needed to do.
A net violation gave Mid-Prairie back the lead and an ace made it set point.
A miss serve pulled Wilton within one at 24-23, but with the ball shifting from side to side over the net a stellar rally which closed with Jeorgia Evans placing the ball right inside the line sealed it and sent Tim Grady Gymnasium into a frenzy.
“I’m smiling so much, I got goosebumps,” Mid-Prairie junior hitter Jovi Evans said. “It feels so good that our hard work has paid off. It also shows that we’re not done yet. We’re on a mission.”
Jovi Evans led the Golden Hawks with 19 kills, 21 assists and 17 digs. Callie Huber followed with 13 kills and four blocks.
Avery Helmuth dished out 25 assists with 15 digs. Katelyn Harland ended with nine kills and three aces.
Dakota Mitchell finished with 25 digs and three aces, while Jeorgia Evans had 15 digs.
The 2024 Golden Hawks join the 1996 and 2004 teams as the only Golden Hawks to reach the state tournament.
Back-to-back seasons, the Golden Hawks have broken the school record for wins, this time posting a 33-8 record.
Wilton bows out at 32-8.
“It feels great,” Mid-Prairie head coach Zeb Evans said. “I’m really proud of this team. We knew that we were going to play a team for a third time. We revamped our entire offense a week and a half ago to be prepared for this moment. The girls grabbed it and ran with it. They actually took it way better than what we thought. They said we’re going to own this and now there isn’t anyone in the state that has seen our offense coming at them.”
Mid-Prairie will open the state tournament against No. 1 Mount Vernon on Tuesday, Nov. 5 inside Xtream Arena in Coralville. The Golden Hawks are the No. 8 seed.
Mid-Prairie opened strong in the first set, jumping out to a 4-0 lead over the Beavers.
That lead only grew into the middle stages of the opener, as a kill from Harper Pacha kick started a 4-0 run by the Golden Hawks making it 13-6 and forcing a Wilton timeout
Mid-Prairie led by as much as nine, 19-10, in set one after kills from Jovi Evans and Huber with a hitting error from the Beavers.
A kill from Brylee Gearhart had the Golden Hawks looking like they were going to take a comfortable set one victory at 24-18, but Mid-Prairie was forced to take a timeout after three straight points cut it to three at 24-21.
Following the timeout, a block got Wilton even closer at 24-22, but a miss serve ended it in favor of the Golden Hawks.
Set two saw the Golden Hawks fall behind 8-4 early on.
Mid-Prairie was able to bring it back even at 8-8 and retake the lead on miss hit from the Beavers.
The Golden Hawks were able to build a lead as large two on numerous occasions at 11-9, 12-10, 13-11 and 14-12, but were never able to pull away.
After back-to-back blocks by Wilton made it 20-18, it would never give it up. Two errors by the Golden Hawks pushed the Beaver lead to 22-18.
Mid-Prairie got it back within three, but it wasn’t enough.
In set three, the Golden Hawks showed poise asserting their dominance and racing out to a 9-3 lead.
“We knew it was going to be a tough game,” Evans said. “We took that game and were like now we know what we need to do better. We were able to take care of business in the third and fourth set.”
Wilton pulled it within three at 10-7, but Jovi Evans hit two kills and Gearhart blocked a hit to highlight a 4-0 run by Mid-Prairie.
A 5-0 run capped off by a Katelyn Harland kill gave Mid-Prairie its then largest lead of the frame at 19-11.
Wilton scored once more, but the Golden Hawks scored the final four points of the set to set up the deciding fourth.
“We were more mentally prepared this year,” Mitchell said. “We worked on our mental game. Before every single practice we work on breathing. It keeps us calm. We do it before every single game. We knew we could do it the first two years, but his year we’re more mentally strong.”
