Mid-Prairie reached the championship game of the River Valley Conference tournament with a two-set win over West Branch in the semifinal round on Thursday. 

Back in September, Mid-Prairie snapped an 18-game losing streak to the Bears with a three-set sweep in Wellman. This past week, the Golden Hawks made it a two-game streak of their own with the 25-19, 25-18 victory.

Seniors Landry Pacha and Ella Groenewold each had seven kills in the win. Freshmen Jovie Evans and Harper Pacha each ahd six kills and Evans had a team-high 13 assists. 

According to coach Sherry Evans, the key to victory was “just keeping our energy up and running a fast tempo,” she said. “Keep going at them.

Mid-Prairie trailed 9-4 early in the first set and was still behind 15-10 when Paige Safly served five points in a row. Callie Huber’s block tied the game at 15-15, forcing a West Branch timeout. Groenewold, who had five blocks in the match, rejected a Bear attack to extend the Golden Hawk lead to 19-16. 

“They’re another quick, small, scrappy team,” Evans said. “Not as scrappy as Wes Liberty, but they got a lot of balls up too and we threw up a couple blocks on them and they kind of got in their head a little bit.”

The second match was tied at 5-5 before Mid-Prairie scored 8 of the next 10 points on the way to a sweep. 

West Liberty, the sixth-ranked team in 3A, added a tournament championship to its RVC regular season title with a 25-19, 25-22 win over No. 11 Mid-Prairie in the title match. 

Mid-Prairie trailed 8-3 in the opening set and again fell behind 9-3 in the second. Both times the Golden Hawks battled back. Mid-Prairie closed the gap to 11-9 in the first before the Comets went on a run. The Golden Hawks tied the second set at 12-12 and it was still tied at 17-17 before the conference champions pulled away again

“Mentally, we’ve got to focus and understand we actually can compete,” Evans said. “I mean, we came from behind and competed. And we just need to get it in our minds that we're going to come out there every time and start early. And compete from the get go. But it's also feeling your flow, seeing who's matched up against who and what they're going to do.”

Groenewold and Harper Pacha led Mid-Prairie with five kills apiece and Huber had a team high four blocks. Evans had 12 assists, 13 digs and three kills. Dakota Mitchell had 22 digs in the match and finished the tournament with 58.

West Liberty swept Wilton 25-18, 25-16 in the semifinal and goes into postseason play with a record of 28-7. 

“They don't let anything drop,” Evans said. “I think that's one of the differences between us and them — they're always going all out every single ball and sometimes we hesitate.”

Mid-Prairie was a 21-13, 21-17 winner over Durant in the RVC quarterfinals. 

Landry Pacha led the Golden Hawks with eight kills, nine assists and four aces in the win. Freshman Avery Helmuth was 11-of-12 serving with a pair of aces as well. 

West Branch was a 21-19, 20-22, 15-11 winner over Tipton in the tournament quarterfinals, while Wilton defeated Regina 21-16, 21-17 .