O'FALLON – Things went back-and-forth all evening between Edwardsville and O'Fallon.
The Panthers would make a run, then the Tigers would make a run.
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In the end, Edwardsville managed to find a way to hold off O'Fallon, taking a 25-22, 23-25, 25-22 Southwestern Conference win at O'Fallon's Panther Dome Thursday evening. The Tigers improved to 6-2 on the year, 2-0 in the SWC; the Panthers fell to 1-1 overall and in the league.
“I don't think we were at our best, but I think that had a lot to do with the serves we were seeing, the blocks we were seeing,” said Tiger coach Andy Bersett following the win. “We went up to the Joliet (West) tournament (where the Tigers finished second, falling to New Lenox Lincoln-Way West in the final) and we've played a bunch of matches already, but that's about as good a team as we've seen – the full package. (O'Fallon coach) Katelyn (Hagerty) always that team ready to go; we know it's a battle every time – it's fun. The kids know each other.”
Bersett thought being in last weekend's Joliet West tournament, where the Tigers went 4-2 in reaching the final, will help the Tigers in the long run. “That's why we try to front-load our schedule with tournaments is because we want to get as many matches early and be at our healthiest and freshest at the end and play the highest level of competition,” Bersett said. “When you have teams like O'Fallon, Belleville East, Belleville West – our whole conference now – it's fun and I think it's why were seeing more postseason success out of Metro East teams.”
Edwardsville's senior combination of Nick Allen and Jack Grimm played a key role in the win, combining for 36 kills on the night (Allen with 19, Grimm with 17). “No doubt they're a big part of our offense,” Bersett said. “I think if you look at any team, their attackers are going to be their best and get their most kills; that no different with our team.
“I was impressed with the way our middle stepped up; we had Will Bode – every single game, he's a stud. He doesn't look very tall our there, but I'll tell you what – he plays big. We had Joe Fitzgerald, a senior, step in – he hasn't gotten much time this year, he came in and did a nice job, and Cal Werths, a junior, came in to get some blocks for us at the end. It was a total team effort, you can tell that by the number of subs we used tonight, too.”
“I feel like we are evenly matched” with the Tigers, Hagarty said. “It was a great match overall; at the end of the day, it's going to be who makes fewer errors and they have some definite offensive weapons over there; I feel like we do too. I think we're very comparable when you look at the stats.”
Given that this was a Southwestern Conference match, “every day you have to go in and work hard,” Hagarty said. “I'm very proud of the way my guys came out and competed out there for being our second match this season; I think that we set the bar very high and know we are going to keep pushing to be that elite team down here.
“They went up to Chicago and I know they performed well up there, then they came back down here and you can tell they're a well-coached group – they have some very talented players on the other side.”
Both teams exchanged five-point runs in the early part of Game 1 for a 12-12 tie before things started going back-and-forth before the Tigers came out with the win. Game 2 started out the same, both teams not getting to big leads before the Panthers went on a four-point run to take a lead before Edwardsville responded with a run of its own to pull to 12-11; OTHS answered back with a run that put them up as much as 19-12 at one point.
Edwardsville bounced back to make a game of it, pulling to as close as 23-20 at one point before O'Fallon closed out the game, then opened Game 3 by taking a small lead before the Tigers took a 6-5 lead. O'Fallon then grabbed as much as a 12-9 lead on the Tigers before EHS went on a run to go ahead 13-12. Things then went back-and-forth again as neither team could get a significant advantage. It stayed close throughout the game before, at 21-21, the Tigers took advantage of a couple of Panther miscues to grab a lead and managed to hold off O'Fallon to take the win.
Bob Dresner had 10 points from serve for the Tigers, while Lucas Verdun had 38 assists for EHS. Next up for Edwardsville is a 4:30 p.m. Tuesday SWC visit to Granite City before they take on CBC on the road at 5:15 p.m. April 6.
