Edwardsville volleyball team honors seniors Saye, Meyer, then thumps Breese Mater Dei
EDWARDSVILLE – Edwardsville's volleyball team honored seniors Shelbey Saye and Nicki Meyer Monday night as the Tigers defeated Breese Mater Dei 25-15, 25-15 at Lucco-Jackson Gym on EHS' Senior Night.
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The win ran the Tigers' record to 24-4 on the season heading into a must-win Southwestern Conference showdown at Belleville West tonight; the Knights, traditionally one of the top teams in the area, fell to 13-13-2 on the season.
“Mater Dei is a great team year in and year out,” said Tiger coach Jami Parker. “Chad (Rakers) does a great job coaching the girls; they have tremendous fundamental skills. They're just a great team to play every year. They're not (an) easy (team) ever; they're very athletic girls, very well-coached girls.
“One of the girls' goals tonight was the first to be to five (points), first to 10 (points). We've finished a lot of matches well recently, but we've had a lot of slow starts, and as you're heading down the stretch, you don't want to get off to those slow starts. That can come back and kind of bite you. They did a beautiful job tonight of getting to a quick start and carrying that momentum through the match.”
“I thought Edwardsville looked real nice,” Rakers said. “We're just struggling sometimes with the simple things; Edwardsville throws a lot at you. They come at you in many directions They move (Rachel) Pranger all over the place; she's a horse. You've got to know where she's at, you've got to know where she's coming from all the time.
“It's tough, especially with (Rachel) Verdun being able to throw the ball around as well as she does. Those two command the court and they demand your attention, and if you don't give it to them and force them to do things they don't want ot do, you're going to get in trouble fast. That's what happened with us.”
The Knights have had an up-and-down season. “We've been two steps forward, two steps back,” Rackers said “Three steps forward, two steps back. It's been one of those years where we can't seem to get over the hump, especially in the big game, and we've got to get that figured out by next week (when the IHSA volleyball postseason gets under way).”
Edwardsville got out of the gates quickly in Game 1, getting out to a 4-2 lead before the Knights forged ties at 4-4 and 5-5 before taking the lead at 6-5 before the Tigers went on a five-point run to move into an 11-6 lead. Mater Dei bounced back to pull to within 12-10 before Edwardsville pulled away again to lead 16-10 and then 19-12 to take control. The Knights could get no closer than 22-15 before Edwardsville closed out the game.
The Tigers took command early in Game 2, scoring the game's first five points to force Mater Dei to call time out; they got to 6-2 before the Tigers pulled away to 10-2. The closest Mater Dei could come was 15-12 before a a run put EHS ahead at 19-12; the Tigers proceeded to close out the match before the Knights could mount another run.
Pranger had 11 kills for the Tigers on the night, followed by Kate Martin's eight kills; Verdun had 20 assists while Martin had two blocks and Pranger and Saye had a block each. Megan Woll had 11 points with two aces while Martin and Saye had six points each and Pranger five with two aces.
Following tonight's match at West, the Tigers will be in a tournament hosted by suburban Chicago school LaGrange Lyons this weekend before next week's IHSA Class 4A Alton Regional, where the Tigers will play the winner of a play-in match between Chatham Glenwood and the host Redbirds at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 25; the regional final is set for 6 p.m. Oct. 27, with the winner advancing to the Chatham Glenwood Sectional Nov. 1.
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