Regional playoff picture

Over the next two days, each area volleyball team will be kicking off its postseason, as the IGHSAU regional tournaments get underway.

Tuesday night will feature area Class 1A and 2A schools (WACO, IMS, Keota, Highland and Columbus), while the Class 3A (Mid-Prairie) and 4A (Washington) tournaments begin on Wednesday.

Below will be recaps of the end of each teams? season, and a look ahead at their regional tournament opponent.

First serve is set for 7 p.m. in all matches.

Washington

The Demons come into the postseason with a 3-22 record, but there is many reasons for optimism surrounding the Washington volleyball team.

Continuous improvement and a positive attitude have been the themes under the first year of head coach Lexa Mahr?s tenure and it has shown on the court.

In their final matches of the regular season, the Demons picked up a pair of wins, knocking off Keokuk in three sets and Tri-County in two at the Washington home tournament.

The Demons fell in three sets to Fairfield on Thursday, 25-10, 25-19, 25-17, but had Liv Postl pick up nine kills in the match, joining Jessie Buchholz, who had six.

The Demons will be squaring off with North Scott on Wednesday, as they travel to Eldridge for the regional tournament match.

The Lancers come into the match with a 10-19 record, winners of seven of their last 10 matches, including a three-set victory over Mid-Prairie, who split the season series with Washington.

The winner of this game will take on Clinton in the next round.

Mid-Prairie

The Golden Hawks (12-19) will take on Williamsburg (16-18) in their postseason opener, having fallen in five of their last six matches.

The Golden Hawks started off the year 4-0, and were 10-10 as recently as Oct. 1, but a string of tough opponents in the final half of the season hurt their record.

Mid-Prairie split its final two games in the River Valley Conference tournament, sweeping Northeast, Goose Lake, 21-14, 21-8, with the help of eight kills from sophomore Jaedynn Evans.

Evans also notched 11 digs in the match and was good on 12 of her 13 serve attempts, in the victory over Northeast.

Williamsburg is on a hot streak over the last week of the regular season, winning eight of its last 12 matches, including victories over Solon, Vinton-Shellsburg and Clear Creek-Amana.

The winner of this contest will move on to face the winner of Mount Vernon and Solon.

Highland

The Huskies ended the regular season at 21-11, the top mark among all area volleyball squads, and will look to make quick work of their first-round opponent, Louisa-Muscatine (1-24).

Highland enters the game having split its last eight matches, falling to New London, Mediapolis and Wapello in the process, but has wins over West Burlington, Winfield-Mount Union and Pekin.

They will turn to a pair of talented young hitters in sophomore Aly Stokes (160 kills) and junior Bailey Harmston (148 kills) to have success in the postseason, while relying on a pair of setters, with junior Murphy Beinhart and senior Amy Schnoebelen sharing the duties this season.

Kelsey Hora continues to be an all-around player for the Huskies, with a team-best 314 digs to go with 72 kills and tying with Stokes for the team lead in aces with 36.

The winner will move on to face North Cedar, who is ranked No. 8 in the latest 2A poll.

Columbus

The Wildcats posted a 9-20 record on the season and will be taking on Wapello, who claimed a 21-8 record in 2016.

Columbus and the Arrows met once this year, in Columbus Junction, with the Arrows claiming a competitive 3-1 victory (25-20, 25-20, 18-25, 25-16).

Coming into the contest, the Wildcats have lost eight of their last 10 matches, picking up wins over Cardinals and English Valleys over that stretch.

The winner of the match will take on Tipton.

WACO

The Warriors finished the regular season with a .500 record, picking up a 14-14 year, and will be taking on Winfield-Mount Union.

The Warriors ended the season winning five of their final eight matches, including knocking off Albia and Central Lee in their most recent contests.

Mayme Hinh has led the team with 157 kills, but two other Warriors have reached the century mark this season, with Kiana Miller posting 111 kills and Halle Kissell picking up 110 on the year.

Kissell has also been the team?s top setter this season, with 372 assists on the year, notching a team-best 35 blocks.

The Wolves will be coming into Wayland with a 13-17 record and having lost four of their last five matches, but the two teams never faced each other this regular season.

Iowa Mennonite

Ending the year winning four of their last six matches, IMS is on an upswing as the postseason begins.

The team sits at 10-16 on the season, led by freshman Mia Graber?s 108 kills on the season, and 22 aces.

Alijah Beatty has been strong as a setter for IMS, claiming 308 assists in her senior season, while Suzanna Yoder (236 digs) and Rachel Miller (263 digs) have led the team defensively.

IMS will be taking on Lone Tree in regional action. The 12-13 Lions have finished the season strong, winning five of their last eight matches, including a 3-1 match victory over IMS on Sept. 29.

Keota

The Eagles finished the season with a 2-15 record on the season, but come into their regional match against English Valleys (1-21) on a high note.

On Thursday, the Eagles defeated the same English Valleys team they will face on Tuesday, two sets to one.

In fact, both season victories for the Eagles have come against English Valleys.

In the win, Gracie McHugh picked up six kills, while Erin Chalupa had five.

Jillian Schulte had 13 assists in the victory.