TIGERS GO 3-2 IN CLASSIC, FINISH NINTH IN OWN CLASSIC: The Edwardsville girls volleyball team split its four matches in the Tiger Classic tournament, finishing ninth by winning the Bronze bracket.
In the group stage, the Tigers started off well with a 25-11, 25-17 win over Decatur Eisenhower, but then lost the next two matches, 25-19, 25-23 to Mahomet-Seymour and 21-25, 25-18, 15-13 to Breese Central to play in the Bronze bracket.
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On Saturday, Edwardsville won the semifinal match over Staunton 25-18, 25-20, then defeated Rock Island 25-11, 25-19 to take ninth place.
In the fifth-place match, Mahomet-Seymour defeated O'Fallon 25-19, 28-26, while New Lenox Lincoln-Way West won the championship with a 25-18, 25-17 win over Lincoln. Caroline Smith of the Warriors was named the tournament's MVP, while Sydney Davis was the only Tiger to be named to the All-Tournament team.
In other group stage results on Friday, O'Fallon defeated Highland 25-13, 23-25, 15-4, Columbia won over Staunton 25-17, 25-20 and Highland won over Staunton 25-12, 25-19.
In regular season matches on Friday, Triad won at Granite City 25-20, 25-15, Marquette Catholic won over Carrollton 25-20, 27-25 and Maryville Christian won over Wayfair Christian of Jacksonville 25-19, 22-25, 25-23.
Tigers Hold Off Collinsville In Thursday Match
The Edwardsville High girls volleyball team held off Collinsville in the opening set before going off on a 7-1 run to start the second set, going on to win the Southwestern Conference match over Collinsville 26-24, 25-8 Thursday evening at Lucco-Jackson Gym.
The win enabled the Tigers to start off the season 2-0 going into their Tiger Classic tournament.
The Tigers were able to show resiliency in the first set, which was a back-and-forth affair, before dominating the Kahoks in the second set.
"Collinsville came out ready to play," said Edwardsville head coach Heather Ohlau. "They knocked us out of our system, they caught us on our heels, they did a great job of mixing up their offense and we were able to find a way to clean up our side. I think we gave up a lot of points, so once we settled down and focused on playing a little bit cleaner, we were able to pull out the win."
After getting through the first set, the Tigers were able to play their game in the second set and it proved to be a world of difference.
"The second set, they came out a lot cleaner," Ohlau said, "they came out firing, they played just better defense, we played better offense, we limited our mistakes and that was the difference in that second set."
The win over the Kahoks, along with Tuesday's opening night win over O'Fallon, gave Edwardsville its 2-0 start, a great way to get the season underway and Ohlau couldn't be happier with the start.
"Yeah, anytime you can take home a win against a conference opponent, it's always a good day," Ohlau said. "And so, that let's us see where we're going into this tough weekend of our Tiger Classic."
It was Collinsville who got off on the right foot by scoring three of the first four points in the opening set, as Avery Johnson served up the first two points, with an exchange of points bringing the score to 4-2 for the Kahoks. The two teams exchanged points before Collinsville took an 8-5 lead, after which the Tigers got the ball back at 8-6 and Liv Johnes served up back-to-back points to tie the set at 8-8.
The teams again exchanged points until Sara Gouy served up three points in a row to give the Tigers a 13-10 lead. At 14-12, Edwardsville, behind a Ciara Cunningham kill and a combined block from Cunningham and Shelby Lee, took the Tigers to a 17-12 lead. Talesha Gilmore then drove home a kill to make it 17-13 and sparked a Kahok rally off the service of Meaghan Sommer to tie the set at 17-17. Edwardsville then got the ball back at 18-17, but again, Collinsville came back to tie the set at 19-19. Another exchange gave Edwardsville a 24-22 lead and a chance to clinch the set, but Collinsville got a Gilmore kill and an Edwardsville violation to tie the set 24-24. The Tigers then got a kill from Sydney Davis and Addie Reader and Lee combined on a block to give Edwardsville a 26-24 win and go ahead by a set in the match.
The Kahoks got the first point of the second set, but after that, the Tigers reeled off seven straight points to take a 7-1 lead before the Kahoks got the ball back. After the point that made it 7-2, Edwardsville then scored four more points off Gouy's service to go ahead 12-2.
Another Edwardsville rally came about as the Tigers scored three of the next five points to go ahead 15-4, then reeled off four more points to take a 19-5 lead. Edwardsville went on to score six of the set's final nine points, clinching the match on a Reader kill to give the Tigers the 25-8 win and the two-set sweep.
Davis led the way in kills with 5, while Reader had three kills, Hanna Matarelli had seven digs for the Tigers, while Johnes had four, Matarelli served up six points, with Reader, Gouy and Johnes serving up five points each, Matarelli had three aces and Johnes had nine assists, with Gouy having five assists.Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
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