EDWARDSVILLE – Edwardsville girls volleyball senior outside hitter Maddie Isringhausen has helped the Tigers to an incredible start to the 2019 season, moving to 6-1 with a 25-9, 25-6 win over Alton in the opening Southwestern Conference match Tuesday evening at Lucco-Jackson Gym
Isringhausen, as with her teammates, is very happy with the Tigers’ fast start.
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“I think we worked together as a team,” Isringhausen said during a post-match interview, “We played our game, and we worked really, really hard, and we just stuck to what we were working on all week.”
Isringhausen, the daughter of former St. Louis Cardinals’ star relief pitcher Jason Isringhausen, feels that the Edwardsville players wanted to up their game, and it’s the biggest reason why the Tigers are off to such a great start.
“I think that we all just decided together that we want to win, and not that we want to do well,” Isringhausen said, “compared to how we did last year. We started off really slow last year, and we didn’t want to do that again. So together, as a team, we decided that we want to go out there and play our best all the time.”
And things have begun to click already for Edwardsville, off to their 6-1 start, including a second-place finish in their own Tiger Classic last weekend.
“Yeah, they’ve been looking really, really good,” Isringhausen said. “We’re clicking. Our setters and our hitters are connecting really, really well, and our defense is really going for the ball every time.”
Isringhausen has taken on a different role as a senior and is developing into an all-around player as well as taking more of a leadership role as one of two seniors on the club this year.
“I think I’ve been playing pretty, pretty well,” Isringhausen said. “I’m playing all the way around now, which is new for me, and so, I’ve been working on my defense, which is helpful. And then, I’m trying to be the best leader I can as a senior, and it’s going pretty well.”
The goals that Isringhausen has set for both herself and the Tigers are very simple and very forward.
“For myself, I just want to go out there and be a good leader all year long,” Isringhausen said, “and get us as far as we can. And as a team, of course, we want to go to state, we want to win, we want to go far in the postseason. But together, we just want to play.”
And Isringhausen couldn’t be more happy to see the way things are going for her team in the early going.
“Yeah, we’re very pleased with how things have been going so far,” Isringhausen said. “We can only go up from here, we’re still going, and we’ll keep working hard every week in practice.”
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