O’FALLON – Junior Eric Epenesa comes from a long family line of exceptional athletes and he has followed a different path than his brother, A.J., with a focus on volleyball in the spring.
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Both A.J. and Eric love the gridiron. Eric is a linebacker for Edwardsville High School. A.J. is a sophomore defensive standout at the University of Iowa and was a three-sport star for the Tigers. In the spring, A.J. was a standout in the shot put and discus and was a state champion discus thrower.
Thursday night wasn’t the best match of the season for the Edwardsville boys volleyball team as the Tigers lost at O’Fallon on Thursday night at the Panther Dome, falling 25-13, 25-18 in the Southwestern Conference matchup.
It’s still early in the season, with the Tigers now standing at 6-2, and Epenesa has some simple goals he’d like to achieve for himself and the team.
“Well, for sure, I just want to become the best player I can possibly be this season,” Epenesa said, “and I want the team to do a pretty good winning season, preferably. And then, our goal is definitely to make it to state this year, which would be a great run for us.”
Although the Tigers lost, they kept battling and playing hard, but not a lot went right on the day.
“We weren’t ready to play today,” Epenesa said in a post-match interview, “and even myself, I wasn’t ready for everyone, and we just need to come out, ready to play. We could have hung with that team, we could have played better, but we just didn’t, and it wasn’t our day today.”
Eric takes much inspiration from his older brother, A.J.
“Well, I love my brother (A.J.) and my family a lot, and I wish to be a good leader like him,” Epenesa said, “and help do the best that I can to our team go as far as possible in the state series."
Eric's sister, Sam, also played volleyball in high school and went on to play at Purdue. Eric credits his sister with helping him get into volleyball and going to camps during the offseason.
“She’s a good volleyball player, and she kind of helped me come into volleyball a little bit,” Epenesa said, “and takes me to camps and stuff like that.”
Sam, who now lives in Florida, calls Eric every so often with advice and tips on how to be a better player.
“She likes to call me, and talk to me, and tell me how it’s going,” Epenesa said. “She gives me tips and tricks I can learn just by talking to her, which really helped me a lot.”
And the Southwestern Conference matches are always all-important, and the competition is very keen.
“Yeah, it’s always a battle,” Epenesa said, “and you just got to be ready to go out there because every team’s ready to come beat you.”Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
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