EDWARDSVILLE – Much like Monday’s Edwardsville girls volleyball match at Triad where the Tiger players had a reunion with their former coach Jami Parker, new Edwardsville coach Lisa Orlet had a reunion with her one-time players with Incarnate Word Academy of St. Louis County.
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Orlet had played for, coached and been the athletic director for the Red Knights at one time before taking the reins of the Tigers over the summer after Parker departed to become Triad’s new coach.
“Whitney (Small, the Red Knights’ current coach) is great – I coached Whitney, she played for me and was an incredible defender,” Orlet said. “We won three (Missouri) state championships with her and I was able to coach her at (Saint Louis University); I love that she’s back coaching – she’s invaluable for these girls and I’m very proud of her.”
The Red Knights paid a visit to Lucco-Jackson Gym Wednesday night for a non-conference match with the Tigers and came off the deck twice to score a 25-18, 26-24 win over Edwardsville to go to 12-5 on the year while dropping the Tigers to 7-6.
“Each time these Tigers get out on the floor, they get a little bit better and they learn,” Orlet said. “Even with their errors, they’re learning through those – there’s no other way to learn; you’ve got to accept a little failure in order to grow and that’s what these guys are doing. I’m very proud of them.”
It was Edwardsville mistakes that helped IWA to come from behind to score the win, Orlet felt. “I think in both sets, it was errors,” Orlet said. “We were making smarter plays and they were working on playing as a unit and playing for each other; we just, down the stretch, had too many unforced errors – three or four- and the score’s 24-26. Not taking anything away from Incarnate – they played great.”
Orlet cited Alexa Harris’ effort for EHS on the night. “We put a lot of pressure on her to perform defensively and on the front row, we want her to put the ball away,” Orlet said. “As a sophomore, she’s stepping and I put a lot of pressure on her, but she responds well to it.”
Edwardsville had leads in both games before Incarnate rallied to go ahead. “They challenged us pretty well in both games,” Small said, “and our girls were a little bit mentally shaky, but as the game kind of progressed, we started to find the court offensively, but they did a fantastic job challenging us in both games.”
The opener got out to an even start, Incarnate taking a small lead before Edwardsville evened things up; it stayed even at 6-6 before the Tigers got on a run that saw EHS got out to a 13-7 lead at one point before the Red Knights cut it slightly; the Tiger lead got to 15-10 at one point before IWA rallied to draw even at 16-16 before taking the lead to 20-16 at one point. Edwardsville managed to pull to 20-17, but could get no closer as the Red Knights closed things out at 25-18 for the Game 1 win.
Edwardsville got out to a 6-3 lead early in Game 2, but the Red Knights kept creeping ever-so-close on the Tigers before getting to a 10-10 tie before the Tigers got on a run to make it 17-11 at one point; Incarnate responded with a run that got them ahead at 18-17 before EHS answered to forge a 19-19 tie.
The Red Knights then got on a run to get to a 22-19 lead before the Tigers came from behind to get even at 24-24 to send the game to extra points before the Red Knights scored the final two points of the match to take the win.
Storm Suhre and Corrine Timmerman each had three blocks while Morgan Tulacro and Timmerman had five service points each; Harris had 13 kills, Tulacro 16 assists and Harris 11 digs on the night.
Next up for Edwardsville is a 5:30 p.m. Friday match at Villa Duchesne in St. Louis County.
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