Indian Hills Community College will join four Illinois schools and the host school, Iowa Western, in this weekend’s District C volleyball tournament.  The winner of the three-day, six-team tourney will qualify for the NJCAA Division I National Tournament, which will also be played in Council Bluffs.

Indian Hills will open the district tournament against Kaskaskia College at 4:00 on Friday afternoon.  A win would put the Warriors in the 6:00 match that day against John A. Logan College, the second seed.  If IHCC loses, they wouldn’t play again until noon on Saturday.  It’s a double-elimination format.

The teams in the bracket opposite Indian Hills are Iowa Western, the number-one seed, and Lake Land and Black Hawk, both from Illinois.
Indian Hills coach Terry Carlson says Iowa Western is “the odds-on favorite” and the other five teams appear to be pretty evenly matched.

“We are finally healthy and should have everyone available for the weekend,” Carlson said.  The Warriors, who have a season record of 13-11, battled illness and injury for the latter part of the regular season.
Carlson offered an optimistic assessment of the tourney, saying, “If we can continue to eliminate silly errors, we should be able to get to the finals.  We need to get leadership from our sophomores as they all have been through the process of trying to qualify for the national championships.”  The IHCC coach added, “The intensity level has to be up all weekend.”

The Warriors made it to the finals in last year’s district tournament.  They defeated Iowa Western, but then, playing their third straight match, lost to the Reivers in the title match.