Two of the St. Louis area's top boys volleyball teams met up for the third time this season Monday evening, this time at Edwardsville's Lucco-Jackson Gym.
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And for the third time, Vianney came out on top over Edwardsville as the Golden Griffins got on a decisive six-point run in the rubber game and downed the Tigers 25-22, 21-25, 25-21.
Despite the loss, Tiger coach Andy Bersett saw the match as a learning experience for his team with the IHSA playoffs looming. “They just got on a good run on us and that was the match,” Bersett said. “It's a learning experience for us; we made some adjustments after the first set and once we did, we played better.
“We've still got some things we need to work on still, get the consistency that we want. I've thought the wins and losses will take care of themselves, we just want to be more consistent.”
Edwardsville opened up by taking a 5-2 lead on a kill by Mike Horton and a dink from Jake Vandiver. The Griffins bounced back to tie the game on an ace from Jack Trn, but the Tigers retook the lead on a Vianney mishit and a violation.
From that, Vianney bounced back to regain the lead at 9-7 before the Tigers tied it at 9-9 on Griffin errors. A five-point run gave the Griffins a 14-9 lead before the Tigers called time out. Coming out of the stoppage, Edwardsville scored on a Trey Hagan spike and cut the lead to 15-12 before Vianney started pulling away. The closest the Tigers could come was 19-17 before another Griffin run essentially put the game away.
In the second game, Edwardsville ran out ot a 9-4 lead early on, then made it 12-7 thanks to a Vianney scramble that resulted in the ball going out of bounds.. A Doug Jones spike made it 14-8 in Edwardsville's favor and the Tigers extended the lead to 18-12 thanks to a dink from Will Frank.
The Griffins managed to pull to within 19-17 after the Tigers made a mistake on a service return, but shook off the error and got it to 22-18 after a Hagen block, then closed out the game on a Vianney violation to cap a three-point run.
The rubber game went back-and-forth, neither team really gaining an advantage before a long serve made it 11-10 for the Tigers. The Griffins then went on a six-point run to get the game to 16-11, highlighted by a big spike from Grant Carder, before the Tigers scored again. Edwardsville managed to get the game to 18-12 and 19-15 before the Tigers pulled to a point at 19-18 before Vianney pulled away, closing the match on a spike from Carder.
Ryan Bode recorded 14 digs for the Tigers, while Frank had 12 kills. Bode recorded six points on serve for EHS.
The Tigers travel to Alton for a Southwestern Conference match against the Redbirds Tuesday evening.
