Ravens Volleyball Have an Action Packed Start to the Season

The Hillcrest Ravens have had an action packed start to the 2021-2022 season with two quadrangular events in the first week play.  

 

A new coach, a new offense, and many new faces in the big school quad at Fairfield started fast, but finished strong.  In the first match of the season against 3A Eddyville Blakesburg, the Ravens came out firing, but fell in a fast paced battle.  Match 2 against 3A Albia proved to be a winnable game, but the Ravens came out a bit flat in the smoldering hot gym after the early battle with Eddyville.  The early match serve/ serve receive woes proved too much to overcome as the girls battled back but fell short.  The nightcap against 4A Fairfield found a brutal home student section preventing communication for the visitors.  The Ravens did step up their calls and finished the night strong with some big kills against the home team.   All in all, the Ravens made 3 of the 6 sets winnable against some big competitors! Esther Hughes led the Ravens with 7 kills.  Malia Yoder had an outstanding night of serve receive against some hard serving teams.  Norah Yoder had 18 assists for the evening.

 

Tuesday the 31st found the Ravens back in action for a 2A quadrangle.  The girls fought hard and made tough sets in all 3 matches, also winning their first set of the season with all 6 matches so far against competition 1-3 class sizes larger.  Serve & serve receive was much improved, overall serving 101/113 with 11 aces were the highlights that allowed some thrilling matches all evening.  Esther Hughes once again led the Ravens with 8 kills & 22 digs, Malia Yoder was close behind with 7 kills & 16 digs.  Norah Yoder also improved her night of assists with 24.  Coach Statler commented, “The team is coming together and these long nights of competition against large schools will help the team’s efforts down the stretch!”

 

Come support the Ravens as they open conference play Thursday at Lone Tree!