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O’FALLON – The Edwardsville High boys’ volleyball team met a big challenge Thursday night at O’Fallon, and the Panthers went on to a 25-13, 25-18 win in a Southwestern Conference match at the Panther Dome.
The Panthers were able to get out to a big lead in the first game, and the Tigers just couldn’t get over the hump in the second game as O’Fallon got the sweep.
“The difference was playing against a team who covered every single part of the court,” Tigers coach Scott Smith said. “O’Fallon did a great job on defense, and we kept things too consistent. We didn’t mix things up, we weren’t putting them on their heels. The strengths that we had in the past, and the wins that we had, it was mixing things up. But the boys are trying to stay too consistent when we should have mixed things up and challenged O’Fallon to do their best. Their a darn good team, and they did a really great job of picking up every single thing that we could put down. And we made the errors of doing the exact same thing every single time from every position whenever we sent the ball over.”
The Tigers didn’t adjust to O’Fallon’s offensive attacks, which cost them dearly as well.
“As far as the defense goes, we were not adjusting to the way they were attacking,” Smith said. “Our blocks were a little bit too far off the net, which makes it difficult for the back row to adjust to where we need to be. So everything was off of our shoulder, everything was off to the side, in the back row, we weren’t putting ourselves in good position. So it was tough for the little bit faster defense that we’ve seen in a couple of days, but we saw a team that could attack as well last weekend. But the bottom line was that our front row was having a very difficult time to adjust to what the center was doing.”
The Tigers made things a bit closer in the second game, but Coach Smith said they just couldn’t get over the hump.
The Panthers, behind the serving of Ben Dalman and Easton Gavin, scored five of the first six points in the first game, with Zack Herran scoring a kill, and Justin McMahon getting both a spike and a block down to help O’Fallon jump out to a 5-1 lead. The teams traded points before Henry Hupp got back-to-back service points to cut the Panther lead to 7-4, but after O’Fallon got the ball back, McMahon got the points back, including an ace, to take the lead to 10-4, with the Tigers calling time out to regroup.
Eric Epenesa tipped a shot that got in to give Edwardsville a defensive point, but the Panthers then scored five of the next six points, partially behind the serving of Austin Ames, to extend its lead to 15-6. After another exchange of points, Herran’s service made it 18-9, with Edwardsville calling its final time out of the game. O’Fallon responded by scoring six of the next eight points to make it 24-11, but the Tigers got the ball back on a defensive point, and Max Sellers served up a point to make it 24-13, but the Panthers were able to hit a shot that hit the line to close out the first game at 25-13.
O’Fallon jumped out to a quick 3-1 lead in the second game, but the Tigers were able to score three points in a row to take a 4-3 lead. After an exchange of points that made it 6-6, O’Fallon scored twice to take an 8-6 lead, but the Tigers were able to score defensively, and a Sellers serve retied the game at 8-8. A violation gave the Panthers the ball back, then Herran scored on a kill and a save deflected out to give O’Fallon an 11-8 lead. After another exchange, Connor Sheehan got a nice shot down to make it 13-9, and the two teams again exchanged points to make it 15-11. An Edwardsville defensive point and a service point from Josh Whittenburg cut the lead to 15-13, then at 17-15 for the Panthers, O’Fallon scored three points in a row, led by a Sheehan spike to make it 20-15, forcing another Edwardsville time out. The teams once again went on a point exchange, making it 23-18 before Sheehan and Herran combined on a block, and an Edwardsville shot went into the net to give O’Fallon the game and match 25-18.
Whittenburg led the Tigers with five kills, while Daniel Pauk had three, Brock Hennig had seven assists, and Hupp contributed four digs for Edwardsville.
The Tigers, now 6-2 on the year, are at CBC next Thursday in a 4:30 p.m. start, then host Alton on Apr. 11 in the first of a three-match home stand, with a 5:45 p.m. start time. Smith felt the loss could help serve as a catalyst to what the Tigers need to do to be very successful.
“This was the best competition, as far as what we needed,” Smith said. “There’s been a big gap, as far as the skills that which we played against. This team. O’Fallon is a very, very talented team, and did very well, I believe. And the boys believe it could have gone the other way; we could have won game two with what we’re capable of. Did we play like that tonight? Absolutely not. But this was the sort of competition that is, as I told the boys, it was definitive, but this will not define us, what we can do, what we have done, and what we’re capable of. It won’t define us, but it is really important, and it will be a wake-up call to help the boys themselves understand what needs to be done, the adjustments that we need to do when we’re playing a talented team that is our neighbor, and what we need to do in the future.”
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
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