Davis County gave the 11th-ranked Golden Hawks everything they could handle in the opening set of Wednesday’s regional semifinal. 

Mid-Prairie trailed by five late in the first, but came back to take the set and the match from the Mustangs, 28-26, 25-14, and 25-20.

“That first set was close, but it was fun,” said sophomore libero Dakota Mitchell. “We knew that they were a solid team and we knew that we needed to keep pushing.”

Trailing 23-18 in the first set, the Golden Hawks scored the next three points, forcing a Davis County timeout with a Paige Safly ace. The Mustangs (25-15) came within a point of the win at 24-21. 

“Sometimes when we get in those situations, we really work ourselves up, we play more tense and we almost play afraid,” senior Ella Groenewold said. “So we really focused on taking a deep breath and relaxing. And just playing to win — not playing not to lose, that’s what (coach Sherry Evans) always says. And I think we went out and did that.”

Landry Pacha and Groenwold each had a kill as Mid-Prairie (27-11) scored the next four to extend the match. Pacha’s ace was the game winner. 

“It was just staying calm, keeping our composure and finding the holes,” Pacha said. “Just keeping our tempo up and using our threats. Ella was great tonight and she definitely helped us win that.” 

Groenewold had nine kills and five blocks for Mid-Prairie in the three-set victory. Pacha had eight kills and 20 assists for the match. 

That momentum carried over into the second set for the Golden Hawks, who fed off of the energy of the home crowd during a 9-2 start. 

“The atmosphere is amazing,” freshman Jovi Evans said. “We love having all these people come out and it just makes it so much more fun, so much more exciting and really pushes us to play better.”

Evans finished with eight kills, 17 assists and 13 digs for the Golden Hawks. Mitchell had 17 digs to lead the team. 

Davis County got within 9-6, but Mid-Prairie scored four of the next five and went up 13-7 on Harper Pacha’s ace. Safly had back-to-back kills to close out the set and finished the match with nine. 

“We had so much confidence after that first set and so much energy,” Groenewold said. “We were just ready to play the second set.” 

The Golden Hawks took an early lead again in the third set at 9-3. Davis County battled back to within 17-14, looking to extend its season, but the Golden Hawks closed out the match.

Mid-Prairie coach Sherry Evans said that her team’s serving improved after the first set. 

“We missed too many serves against a team that's pretty good and you just can't give them the freebies like that,” she said. “So we came back out and did a lot better in those last two sets serving wise and made them go out of system.”

Mid-Prairie advances to the region final on Tuesday, October 25. The Golden Hawks will face No. 2 Davenport Assumption, who was a 25-7, 25-11, 25-18 winner over Tipton on Wednesday. 

Team goals include, “serve receive, get our serves in, do our fast tempo,” Evans said. “I'm sure they're going to run fast at us too. We’ve just got to play our game.”

October wins over Holy Trinity and Union, ranked 5th in 3A at the time, have given Mid-Prairie some confidence heading into a high pressure situation on Tuesday. The Golden Hawks also took a set from 4A No. 2 North Scott earlier in the month.

“Just believing that we can compete with top teams, that’s huge for their mindset going into Tuesday,” Evans said. “They are definitely beatable, but we’ve definitely got to be on our 'A' game.”