A week after picking up the first conference victory of their careers, the Hillcrest volleyball players were eight points away from their first conference sweep on Tuesday. Tied 17-17, Pekin scored eight of the last ten to force a fourth set, which Hillcrest won handily, 25-13. 

“We've got to learn to finish, we can't just trust that it's going to happen on its own,” Hillcrest coach Brandon Statler said.  “They were a good cover team. They covered the court well. You’ve got to hit it and you’ve got to hit it hard. And if you're out of system, you’ve got to find the back corners. And we were able to do that perfectly in set four.”

The Ravens' win over Louisa-Muscatine a week earlier was their first conference win as Hillcrest Academy, the institute formerly known as Iowa Mennonite School.

Now the Ravens (4-14) are 2-2 in SEISC North play. 

“It's awesome,” senior Grace Miller said. “We're undefeated at home, so we're really excited for that. And it's just really exciting to see the difference from last year.” 

Senior Esther Hughes led the Ravens with nine kills and four blocks, while freshman Kylee Statler had six kills and just two errors. 

Senior setter Norah Yoder was a perfect 27-for-27 serving with two aces, and had a game-high 20 assists. Evelyn Gerber had 10 digs and Miller finished with nine. 

“I think our main thing was just having a lot of communication and good first passes, we can get a good set and then a kill,” Miller said about the decisive fourth set. “I think our serving was really good and we just played how we were playing in the first and second sets.”

Hillcrest took the opening set 25-17 and took the second 25-21. Statler said that his team’s low numbers, which require some to play both JV and varsity, have actually had an upside for the start of varsity matches. 

“We're figuring out how to play with our limited JV numbers,” he explained. “We only have two girls that go all the way around in JV.  So everybody else would just rotate in and out to keep everybody fresh… and that's turned into an advantage, early in the varsity games.”

The Ravens bounced back from a strenuous weekend, in which they took just one set out of 11 in a tournament at Wilton. 

Statler said that his five seniors were the key on Tuesday, keeping the team focused after mistakes or a Pekin rally. 

“I thought the senior leadership was on point tonight,” Statler said. “Every time we got down, they were listening and reapplying my cues on the court. And that's all you can hope for, is leadership at the right time.”