EDWARDSVILLE – Edwardsville girls volleyball coach Jami Parker reached a milestone earlier in the week.
Parker won her 400th career match Tuesday night when the Tigers defeated Villa Duchesne of St. Louis County.
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It's part of her family's tradition; Parker's mom, long-time Carlinville volleyball coach Fran Struble, reached the 900-victory plateau Thursday night when the Cavaliers defeated Staunton in a South Central Conference match.
That's more than 1,300 wins in the family.
Parker won career match No. 401 Thursday night at Lucco-Jackson Gym in Edwardsville, defeating Alton 25-15, 25-18 to go to 23-4 overall and 6-0 in the Southwestern Conference; the Redbirds fell to 14-18-1 overall, 0-6 in the league.
“It's a very special landmark,” Parker said. “I've been able to do it with tremendous family support, tremendous coaching support from my assistant coaches, great players, great parents, tremendous support from the administration, but obviously, the bigger landmark tonight is my mom's.
“That's something so few people ever see in their lifetime; that's the one to focus on tonight. I've had a tremendous role model in my mom; she's just a woman of character and grace. I'm blessed to have had such a great role model. It's hopefully helped me become the coach I am and would like to be in the future.”
Of the Tiger sweep, Parker said “they took some great swings and had some big digs in the second game; they were playing hard and the girls had to work. I was proud of them; they worked out of it and closed the game out.
“The girls went out there; I know they were hitting very well. In order for them to do that, Rachel Verdun made some good choices in her setting and out defense was passing well, so we had all the options. They've got some good players (on Alton) and I was proud of the girls for getting out there and getting the job done.”
“We started picking up a little bit of what they were doing, but as soon as we did, they mixed it up; they're really good about doing that,” said Redbird coach Stacey Ferguson. “They know how to move the ball around and see the court and did a nice job of that.
“We were just a couple of steps behind everything and speed-wise, just didn't keep up with the pace of the game and obviously, that's what got us.”
The Redbirds have been battling injury and eligibility issues this year. “We've been up-and-down. We've had eligibility and injury issues this season, so it's kind of thrown us for a loop,” Ferguson said. “We're still here, we're still playing, still trying to maintain focus and keep playing every night to get better, working towards the postseason and represent the best that we can.”
Edwardsville got out to big leads in both games, the Tigers storming out to 14-5 lead at one point in the opener and getting to 21-7 before the Redbirds made a run to cut the lead to 22-10 and 24-15 before the Tigers closed out Game 1. In Game 2, Edwardsvile broke a 2-2 tie early with a 10-point run that made it 12-2 before Alton scored again, then expanded the lead to as much as 17-7 and 20-9 before the Redbirds caught fire again, making a move to cut the lead to 24-18 before EHS scored the match-winner.
Kate Martin had 13 kills for the Tigers, with Rachel Pranger adding 12 kills; both Martin and Pranger, along with Corrine Timmerman, had two blocks each; Verdun had 24 assists and Megan Woll 11 digs. For the Redbirds, Savannah Fisher had six points with two aces, 10 digs and four kills; Saddi Brands had three kills and Sydney Schmidt 10 assists.
Next up for the Redbirds is an Oct. 20 league match against Belleville West at home in their league and regular-season finale; the Tigers hold their home finale and Senior Night against Breese Mater Dei at 5 p.m. Monday, then close out the league schedule at Belleville West Tuesday before heading to suburban Chicago for the LaGrange-Lyons Tournament Oct. 21-22.
