Shells get off to great start in tournament, move to championship bracket, Panthers move to second-place bracket
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ROXANA – The area's girls volleyball season got off to a great start Monday evening as the ninth edition of the Lady Shell Volleyball Tournament got under way at Roxana's Larry Milazzo Gym, the RHS auxiliary gym and the Roxana Junior High gym next door to Milazzo Gym.
The Shells and Jersey got the tournament off to a solid start as the Shells won their first match of group play over the Panthers by a 25-15, 20-25, 15-5 score.
Play continues in the tournament at 5 p.m. today with all matches in Groups C and D, with elimination play starting 9 a.m. Saturday and continuing throughout the day; the final of the tournament is set for 2 p.m. Saturday at Milazzo Gym.
“You could tell it was the first match of the season for both teams,” said Shell coach Mike McKinney. “Inconsistent play from both sides and we just didn't have that killer instinct. We're trying to get used to the new rotation we put in; we had two days to practice it.
“The first game, we did all right – we weren't aggressive enough; the second game, we thought we could do the same thing we did the first game and get away with it. We got down big and made a run, then we made a couple of errors at the end that cost us the game; luckily, we bounced back the third game and had a little momentum on our server.”
“The first match (against the Shells), we didn't serve very well in the first game,” said Panther coach Bob Seimer. “We got behind something like 10-2, then we kind of came back and it went kind of back-and-forth, but at that point, we were kind of dead. We beat Roxana the second game, then came out kind of flat in the third one; again, when we serve well, we play a lot better.
“When we played Madison, we only had two or three bad serves the whole match; once we get our serves in, we get everybody in the flow of things and it gives us a little bit more confidence. We've got a pretty young team – we only have two seniors (Faith Franke and Samantha Ayers) - but as the season goes on, we'll get better.”
The Shells broke loose in the rubber game, which was played to 15 points with a 20-point cap under tournament rules, by going on a eight-point run from 2-1 down to the Panthers before Jersey managed to cut the lead to 9-5 before Roxana scored the game's final six points for the win.
Later in the evening, RHS defeated Granite City 25-17, 25-13 and Madison 25-4, 25-7 to assure themselves a spot in the championship bracket Saturday, while the Panthers defeated Madison 25-18, 25-6 and Granite City 25-9, 25-23 to go 2-1 in the group and put them in the second-place bracket for Saturday.
In other group-play matches Monday, Civic Memorial won Group B to qualify for the championship bracket as the Eagles defeated Mount Olive 25-14, 25-22; Gillespie 25-17, 25-14 (see related story); and East Alton-Wood River 25-16, 25-23, while the Oilers defeated the Wildcats 25-23, 25-14 and Gillespie 25-13, 25-20. Gillespie defeated Mount Olive 21-25, 25-17, 15-13.
Today's matches include Marquette Catholic, McGivney Catholic, Bunker Hill and Hardin-Calhoun; each school will play three matches in their group, with first-place teams advancing to the championship bracket Saturday, second-place teams going to the fifth-place bracket, third-place teams to the ninth-place bracket and fourth-place teams to the 13th-place bracket.
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