What is a team without support?

​Golden Hawk volleyball honored three seniors on Sept. 19 in a rout of the Durant Wildcats, winning 3-0 and advancing to 14-3.

​“I am going to take the win. We came out really well tonight, on fire. We kind of let up a little bit but we had good teamwork, good leadership by our seniors,” head coach Sherry Evans said.

Evans feels her three seniors - Paige Safly, Ava Pence and Reese Good - are the team’s biggest support.

“Safly is one of our starters and she came in and had a tremendous game. Really appreciate her. Ava Pence, what a good kid. She’s our little spark plug over on the bench. Always getting everybody to smile and laugh. She came in and nailed all of her serves other than her little foot fault which we gave her a hard time for,” Evans said with a laugh.

“Then Reese coming in the back row for Harper, what a good job. Really good digs. I’m really happy she came in and played for us.”

Safly posted five kills and two blocks, both within the top three on the team. Each Pence and Good got plenty of reps as well.

The Hawks won 10-25, 13-25 and 19-25. The Wildcats made a valiant comeback effort in set three, once down 8-20, going on 6-1 and 5-2 runs before closing it with a serve out of bounds to seal the Mid-Prairie victory.

​The Hawk’s serving game, regardless of who was in the rotation, was on fire. The team combined for 16 serve aces with seven coming from junior Dakota Mitchell alone.

​ “[In] early season matches, we were serving in the 70% range. We just kept making higher goals every match,” Evans said.

​It may have been senior night, but the three headed monster in Harper Pacha (sophomore), Jovi Evans (sophomore), and Mitchell stole the show once more.

Pacha led in kills (10) and blocks (10). Evans led in assists (15) and was tied in first with digs (8). Mitchell led in serve aces (7) and digs (8).

​“The sophomores [and juniors] actually play club and they’ve got a lot of experience at very high levels. When they go to nationals, they’re playing kids from around the entire country and I think that really reflects on the court here because they may be more of a role player on their club team but here, they come out and dominate [and are leaders],” Evans said. “They work all year round.”

South Tama Tournament, 9/23

​The Golden Hawks did not lose a set in the South Tama Tournament, easily securing first place. Mid-Prairie beat Waterloo East (4-15), Grinnell (4-13), South Tama (9-12), Belle Plaine (12-7) and Lisbon (19-5) en route to a perfect first place finish.

​The Hawks dominated each set, seeing real pushback just once when South Tama forced overtime during set two against Mid-Prairie. Mid-Prairie eventually won 26-24.

​The next closest set Mid-Prairie faced was a 21-19 win over Lisbon.

After moving to 19-3 on the season, the Hawk’s remained No. 8 in the 3A rankings.

“We just got to keep proving ourselves,” Evans said. “Some of those other schools that are ranked above us, they’ve had longevity names. We’re really trying to build a program here and I think we’re doing a good job. We want to make a name for ourselves too.”

The season is coming to a close. The Hawks will next play Tipton on the road, Thursday, Sept. 28.