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NORMAL – A highly successful era came to an end for Edwardsville girls volleyball Friday night.
An era that saw a six-member senior class set records and achieved many things in since they first came to Edwardsville High School in the fall of 2014.
Those six seniors – Megan Woll, Delaney Allan, Rachel Verdun, Mikeala Suess, Rachel Pranger and Kate Martin – saw their careers come to an end Friday night when Minooka defeated the Tigers 25-16, 25-15 in an IHSA Class 4A super-sectional match at Normal West; the Tigers were eliminated at 32-6 on the year, while the Indians advanced to take on St. Charles North – who ousted Downers Grove North in the Geneva Super-Sectional Friday evening – in next week's Class 4A semifinals at Redbird Arena in Normal.
Tiger coach Jami Parker has spent – in some cases – six or seven years with this year's seniors.
“I told them I loved every minute of it,” Parker said of the senior class. “In some cases, those six seniors have been with me since the sixth grade; four of them have started since they were freshmen. The coaching staff is a staff that has works with these kids from middle school on through high school, so we know the girls well; I was their eighth-grade coach at Lincoln (middle school) with some of these kids.
“It's a bond – it's a family. I told them I've loved every moment with this family, and with these girls, I have so much respect for them – they're not just great athletes, they're great people. They're a tremendous group of people; I told them to take away the memories that they've had.”
As far as the match went, what happened was simple, Parker felt: “They just outplayed us tonight,” she said. “Minooka's a great team and there's a reason why they're ranked so high nationally – they're just a great team. They played some tremendous defense; of course, they always have great hitters and great blocking.
“Some of the things that worked for us with our middles (middle-hitters) weren't working tonight. Congratulations to them and good luck in the state tournament.”
The Indians never really let the Tigers get started in both games; the closest Edwardsville could get to the Indians was 5-5 in the opening stages of Game 2 as the Indians slowly built up their lead, getting to as much as a four-point lead a couple of times in the game before finally pulling away to 19-15 before scoring the match's final eight points to close things out.
Pranger had seven kills for the Tigers with Martin adding three and Maria Smith two; Martin had nine blocks while Smith and Storm Suhre had two blocks each; Verdun had 10 assists while Woll added three while Verdun had 11 digs, Woll nine and Martin eight while Woll had two aces on the night.
