While the push to raise its profile in the class 4A regionals is likely over, the Knoxville Volleyball Squad is still trying to gain momentum in the last few regular season matches starting with Saturday at the Pella Quad. The Panthers will face the hosts along with class 5A #6 West Des Moines Valley and class 1A #3 Holy Trinity. A potential conference clinching match against Chariton looms on Tuesday of next week, then the Panthers host their own invitational on October 14th to wrap up the regular season. Coach Mollie Keitges tells KNIA/KRLS they use the Saturday invitationals to get ready for the road to what they hope is a spot at Iowa City in about four weeks.

Keitges: “The only way we can get prepared for that is to play the best. We haven’t been to a tournament that hasn’t had a ranked team in fact there have been multiple ranked team or half of the field was ranked, so we want to accept that challenge.”

In the Knoxville Invitational, the Panthers could potentially see ranked teams in Holy Trinity, ADM, and Union. Action at Pella is set to get underway at 9:30.