Prairie Volleyball

4 Metro volleyball teams ranked again

There was little movement in the new high school volleyball rankings Thursday by the IGHSAU.

The Marion Indians stayed in the No. 2 spot in the Class 4A poll behind West Delaware. The Prairie Hawks remained No. 3 in Class 5A and the Kennedy Cougars stayed No. 5 in Class 5A.

The Linn-Mar Lions climbed two spots to No. 7 in Class 5A.

Bettendorf leads the 5A rankings, followed by Dowling.

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No.3 Prairie sweeps Washington

The third-ranked Prairie volleyball team swept Washington, 25-15, 25-17, 25-14, in a Mississippi Valley Conference meet at Prairie Tuesday night.

Kenzie Soeken led the Hawks with 15 kills. Megan Oldenburger finished with 11 kills and three aces. Maddie Bell had eight kills.

Kendra Gaskill contributed 42 assists. Kristin Wahlert had 10 digs.

Prairie jumps to 3rd in volleyball

The Prairie Hawks zoomed seven spots from No. 10 to No. 3 in the new Class 5A volleyball rankings Thursday by the IGHSAU.

Prairie (11-1) won all six of its matches at the Linn-Mar Invitational on Saturday, including four victories over ranked teams. The Hawks returned to Linn-Mar on Tuesday night and beat the Lions again.

Kennedy fell one spot to No. 5 in Class 5A. The Cougars (12-5) knocked off then-No. 1 Cedar Falls on Tuesday night, but the Cougars lost two matches to Cedar Falls at the Osage Tournament on Saturday. Cedar Falls dropped to No. 4 in the poll.

Linn-Mar (12-4) fell two spots to No. 9 this week after its losses to Prairie.

Bettendorf (11-1) is ranked No. 1 in Class 5A. Its only loss was to Prairie in the MVC/MAC Challenge earlier in the season.

The Marion Indians (10-2) stayed No. 2 in Class 4A. West Delaware leads the 4A rankings.

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No. 10 Prairie tops No. 7 Lions again

The girls on the Cedar Rapids Prairie volleyball team have turned the Linn-Mar gym into their favorite home away from home.

The 10th-ranked Hawks rallied for a 25-11, 20-25, 13-25, 25-23, 15-13 victory over the seventh-ranked Lions in an exciting Mississippi Valley Conference match Tuesday night.

The victory came just three days after Prairie topped Linn-Mar, 2-0, in the championship match of the Linn-Mar Invitational on Saturday.

The Hawks knew the Lions were looking for revenge Tuesday night after what happened over the weekend.

"I definitely think that win on Saturday made the target on our back a little bigger, but we are a team that can take that," said Prairie senior Kenzie Soeken, who ended the match with a vicious kill.

"We never want to lose to them," added Prairie smash-shot artist Kate Busswitz, who will play at Northern Iowa next year. "We're sick of losing."

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