EG NETTERS FACE WG

Hawkettes Can Tie for Conference No. 2 Spot

East Greene heads to Woodward tonight for a key West Central Conference battle against Woodward-Granger. EG swept West Central Valley last Tuesday in a 3-zip match to move to 4-2 in the West Central, just one game behind Woodward-Granger at 5-1, after WG had disposed of Des Moines Christian 25-17, 32-30, 25-23.

WG’s win dropped DMC from second into a tie for third place with East Greene. Guthrie Center remains atop the league standings with a perfect 6-0 mark and has already beaten the other top 3 teams: WG, EG and DMC. Guthrie takes on Madrid tonight on the road, then closes its conference and regular season with home games against West Central Valley and Coon Rapids-Bayard (3-3), last year’s conference champion and state qualifier.

East Greene picked up a key win two weeks ago (Sept. 22) against CRB in Rippey, rolling over the Crusaders in a three-game match 25-23, 25-23, 26-24.

EG closes out the season with a tournament Saturday at Walnut and home matches against league foes Panorama (3-3) on Tuesday and Madrid (1-5) on Thursday. EG opens regional action the following Wednesday, Oct. 21, at Madrid against the winner of a first round tilt between Madrid and Glidden-Ralston on Monday, Oct. 19, in Madrid.

West Central Conference Volleyball Standings
Guthrie Center 6-0
Woodward-Granger 5-1
East Greene 4-2
Des Moines Christian 4-2
Coon Rapids-Bayard 3-3
Panorama 3-3
Earlham 2-4
Madrid 1-5
Van Meter 1-5
West Central Valley 1-5

EYE ON GJ SAYS: It’s a battle of the birds at Woodward tonight as the EG Hawkettes take on the WG Hawkettes. This is a good test for the EG team as they face a quality team in WG. They should see some good competition in the Walnut Tournament on Saturday and will need to prepared for a much improved Panorama team next week in Rippey. The regionals get underway next week and EG can’t overlook either GR or Madrid, their opponent in round two. State-ranked Southern Cal hosts Paton-Churdan in Lake City in the opposite bracket second round game and the SC-PC and EG-Madrid or GR winners face off in Lake City the following week in the quarterfinals. So if EG makes it to the quarters the likely opponent would be Southern Cal, and the Hawkettes would really need an all-out effort to upend the Mustangs, who made it all the way to the regional finals last year and are ranked 12th this year with a 16-7 record. The other favorite in the region is Exira (13-5) ranked 11th in the state and undefeated in the Rolling Hills Conference.