Sioux Rapids, Ia (Northwest Iowa Now) – Sioux Central took the #7 seed in Class 2A Region 3 and played host to #10 seed Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn Tuesday night in the first round of the Regional Tournament.
Set 1 started of strong for the Hawks. Kenadie Van Loon picked up a pair of aces during a short serving run.
Reata Ayers picked up a few kills early on for Sioux Central, and one of them gave the serve to Avery Wilson. Wilson would go on a tear, as Sioux Central collected a 16-point run, making the score 23-7 before Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn regained the serve.
HMS put up a decent fight despite only being 2 points from losing the set, but Sioux Central ultimately prevailed 25-14.
Set 2 featured another long serving run from the Rebels, this time from Kathryn Thomas, who collected 4 aces in the 12-point run. That gave Sioux Central another good cushion and they came away with the set 2 win 25-16.
Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn avoided any really long serving runs from the Rebels in set 3, but couldn’t get too many of their own going, as Sioux Central took set 3 25-17, closing out a 3-0 win.
The Hawks struggled to get into system all night, with a lot of first or second hits going to close up into the net, which were typically either capitalized on by some awaiting hitters from the Sioux Central side, or tough hits over the net by Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn.
During the match, Sioux Central Senior Reata Ayers recorded her 500th career assist. A significant number of those have come in the 2025 season as she had 339 coming in to the evening.
Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn’s season comes to an end after a 4-16 year where they went 2-9 in the War Eagle Conference, finishing 10th in the league.
Sioux Central advances to the Class 2A Region 3 Quarterfinals where they will play the #2 seed Emmetsburg on the road on Wednesday night. We will carry that match on News Radio 102.5 and AM 1240 KICD and northwestiowanow.com.
