Hawkettes Advance to Regional Quarterfinal

SWEEP SWG IN 3; FACE NEH TONIGHT @ BURNSIDE

East Greene swept Southeast Webster-Grand in three games to get a key regional volleyball victory on SWG’s home court in Burnside on Wednesday, Oct. 19. The Hawkettes’ 25-20, 25-20, 25-17 win moved them on to the quarterfinal round tonight against Northeast Hamilton (Blairsburg). EG returns to Burnside for the 7 p.m. match.

NEH beat CAL (Latimer) 25-21, 25-19, 25-13 on its home court Oct. 19 to advance. NEH (6-16) finished in a tie for 8th place at 2-6 with CAL and Dunkerton in the 11-team Iowa Star Conference. Tripoli, the No. 1 team in Class 1A and defending three-time state champion, won the Iowa Star with an 8-0 mark. Sixth-ranked Janesville (26-10) tied with North Tama for second place (behind Tripoli) in the Iowa Star. Those two teams square off tonight in Janesville in Region 7.

The Hawkettes improved their season record to 9-15 with the win over SWG, a team they lost to in four games in the season opener, also at Burnside. SWG finished the season 4-18.

The winner tonight advances on to the semifinal round on Friday at Woodward against the winner of a match tonight in Woodward between Madrid (9-12) and 10th-ranked Woodward-Granger (17-5). Madrid advanced with a very close win over Colo-Nesco 15-25, 25-17, 20-25, 25-23, 16-14 while WG rolled over Ankeny Christian 25-9, 25-17, 25-14.

Action in the other side of the Region 5 bracket tonight has Coon Rapids-Bayard (21-8) at 15th-ranked Guthrie Center (15-7) and Earlham (16-6) at Adair-Casey (18-10). Those winners square off Friday at Guthrie Center. Semifinal winners advance to the Region 5 final next Tuesday, Nov. 1, at Adel.

EYE ON GJ: This was a real solid turnaround for the Hawkettes and showed how much they have improved throughout the season. The season opening loss to the Eagles was not really all that close—25-12, 12-25, 25-14, 25-21—although the Hawkettes showed some promise for the season to come with that 25-12 win in the second game. To head back to Burnside in the post-season and come away with a solid three-zip sweep says a lot for how far this young team (no seniors and just two juniors and the rest freshman and sophomores) has come in the 2011 season.

East Greene was a bright spot in an otherwise pretty dismal showing for the Rolling Hills Conference. Exira/Elk Horn-Kimballton was sidelined by CRB in a play-in round game last Monday night in Coon Rapids. CRB then dispatched of Glidden-Ralston, RH regular season runner-up with Adair-Casey, on Wednesday. Iowa Christian, winner of both the regular season and conference tournament titles, was beaten handily by Martensdale-St. Mary’s in Martensdale in its Region 4 opener, 25-12, 12-25, 25-14, 25-21.

Paton-Churdan, CAM and Ankeny Christian all lost their opening matches in Region 5 while the same fate befell Orient-Macksburg and Walnut in Region 3.

The only other RH team besides EG to post a win in regional opening round action was Adair-Casey, runner-up in the regular season standings and the conference tourney. The Bomberettes got by Grandview Park Baptist in a very tight match, 21-25, 25-23, 23-25, 25-15, 15-6. This was a pretty significant win, though, as GPB had advanced to the state tourney the last three years in addition to appearances in 2006 and 2002, the Defenders’ state championship season.

Jefferson-Scranton advanced in 2A with an easy win over Prairie Valley (Gowrie) in Jefferson, 25-13, 25-9, 25-19. The Rams head to Story City tonight for a quarterfinal contest against No. 15 Roland-Story, which rolled over Ogden, 25-13, 25-10, 25-13. Ogden is in its first season in the West Central Conference—East Greene’s former league—and found the going pretty rocky as the Bulldogs were 0-9 in conference play along the way to posting an 0-24 volleyball season.

The West Central as a conference fared much better, going 6-4 with one of the losses coming at the hands of a league member, Panorama, to another, Des Moines Christian, in 2A. Also losing in 2A were West Central Valley (Stuart) and Van Meter with all five 1A schools advancing: Guthrie Center, Coon Rapids-Bayard, Earlham, Madrid and Woodward-Granger.

If Jefferson-Scranton gets by the Norse tonight in Story City, the Rams would play in Jefferson in a 2A semifinal match Friday against Kuemper (Carroll) or East Sac County (Lake View).