Prairie Volleyball

Prairie spikers fall to Xavier

On Cedar Rapids Xavier Volleyball Senior Night, the eight upperclassmen on the 11-woman squad were determined to go out on a high note.

“This was our last regular-season home game,” outside hitter Kasey Vanden Bosch said after the Saints throttled Prairie, 3-0. “It made it a little bit more special.”

Fellow senior and middle blocker Kara Zwanziger agreed.

“We knew Prairie was good. They've beaten some good teams,” she said. “But we came out with a lot of energy, and I thought we kept up our energy all the way.”

Both girls were solid at the net all night.

Besides taking the brunt of blocks on Prairie's twin tower sisters Meghan and Kaitlyn Busswitz, they picked up more than their usual share of kills. Vanden Bosch notched eight of them for the night and Zwanziger seven.

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Johnston wins Prairie volleyball title

The Johnston Dragons won all five of their matches Saturday and captured top honors at the Cedar Rapids Prairie Invitational volleyball tournament.

The Dragons, ranked No.5 in Class 5A, defeated West Burlington, Prairie, Holy Trinity, West Branch and Western Dubuque in the round-robin event.

Holy Trinity, ranked No.1 in Class 1A, finished in second place with a 4-1 record. West Branch, ranked No.11 in Class 2A, placed third. Prairie finished fourth, Western Dubuque fifth and West Burlington sixth.

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Geary gets farewell gift from Prairie

Several of Kevin Geary’s former players were in the bleachers for Cedar Rapids Prairie’s home match Tuesday night against Linn-Mar.

After nearly 30 years at the helm of the Hawks’ program, Geary has announced his retirement at the end of the season. The group of former players honored their coach following the match.

Geary’s final Prairie team made it a night to remember for the returning alums.

The Hawks (13-9, 2-3) were convincing winners in the first two games, but fell behind 20-10 to the Lions in Game 3. Prairie roared back to score 15 of the final 17 points in the match to complete a 25-20, 25-16, 25-22 victory.

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Clippers spike Metro teams at Prairie

As the quiet leader of the Cedar Rapids Washington volleyball team, senior Aleena Hobbs admits that sometimes she may be too quiet.

“It seems like when we quit talking, we get kind of laid-back,” Hobbs said Saturday afternoon after the Warriors finished 3-2 for the day and took third in the six-team invitational tournament at Prairie.

“We've lost some close games. We've been right there. We just need to get over the hump and finish.”

Two weeks ago, Washington (12-12) was on the verge of blanking Kennedy in straight sets, only to lose match point and then the match itself by dropping three games straight.

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