Ravens Volleyball Recap - Hillcrest Ravens

**Sophomore Niva Helmuth passes the ball. Photo Credit: Hillcrest Academy Yearbook Staff**

Below articles submitted by Zach Ulin/KCII
8/21/23
KEOTA CONQUERS HOME TOURNEY TO TAKE TITLE; RAVENS RUNNERS-UP
It was a perfect night for the Keota Eagle volleyball team Monday in both the figurative and literal sense.

The Eagles swept their way to their home tournament championship. Keota put together a 3-0 night that saw them vanquish Lone Tree in three 16-21, 21-10 and 16-14, top Tri-County 22-25, 25-7 and 15-11 before beating out Hillcrest in the championship match 13-21, 21-18 and 15-11. After the night, Eagle captain Cassandra Swantz spoke with KCII sports about what led the Eagles to the title and how it felt to win the championship. “We were ecstatic. The last time we went to the championship was my sophomore year as a libero. We played Mid-Prairie and it was a pretty heartbreaking loss. So we really wanted this one. All of our hard work paid off. It’s so incredible to be able to do this with my best friends and teammates. There’s this thing that I like to say, small ball. I always tell the girls ‘first to five, first to 10, first to 15, first to 20’. That’s how we pulled through. We were having so much fun, it was incredible! We were all so excited, we have wanted this for so long, and we worked so hard for this! We were ready for it to happen and then the next thing you know the point is ours. We were all so in the game we were just like ‘Oh my goodness, they just hit it out. That’s our championship’! We won our school tournament. So amazing, I’m so happy!”

The runner-up Ravens were 2-1 to start their season. Despite the setback in the title match, the Ravens swept their way through pool play, beating English Valleys 16-21, 21-17 and 15-13 and handling Highland 21-19 and 21-17.

Read more HERE.

8/31/23
The WACO Warrior volleyball team defended Bob Hilmer Court Thursday night, sweeping Hillcrest Academy in straight sets in the Superconference opener for both schools. The Warriors took the match by 25-12, 25-15 and 25-21 scores. The WACO offense was led on the night by Marie Farmer with seven kills and six for Emma Wagler. Meredith Roth had 15 assists. Defensively Halle Shelman and Zoey Dennler both finished with 16 digs, Farmer and Wagler had three blocks each and at the service line, Morgan Meyer finished with 3 aces. Following the match, Roth and Farmer spoke with KCII sports about the win. “Our points of emphasis are to really come together as a team. We are a newer team after losing a lot of seniors. Keep pushing and finishing, and we achieved that tonight. When we’re on is when our passes are on. When our back row is doing it’s job, and they did a great job tonight, our setters are able to get our hitters a good set and run things besides the basic sets and then they are able to get kills. Communicating with each other is important.”

Raven leaders on the night included 18 digs and eight kills for Malia Yoder, five assists for Kylee Statler, four aces for Claire Withrow and a pair of blocks for Niva Helmuth. Head coach Brandon Statler joined KCII sports after the match to talk about his team’s competitive third set. “(In the third set) we finally created a little deception, which is hard when we couldn’t get the ball to the setter earlier. We don’t lose, we learn