EDWARDSVILLE - Seniors Alexa Harris and Storm Suhre, along with junior Emma Garner, helped lead the way as Edwardsville's girls volleyball team had a total team effort in winning their long-awaited season opener 25-18, 25-16 over O'Fallon in a Southwestern Conference match Tuesday evening at Lucco-Jackson Gym.
The victory gave Heather Ohlau her first win in her debut as Tiger head coach, and she thought that things went very well throughout the match.
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"We showed a solid foundation, our defense did a great job in going after balls and reading their hitters," Ohlau said, "our setters did an exceptional job of providing a hittable ball to our front line hitters, and our hitters did a nice job of completing the hit and putting the ball away."
It was a very good opening win, given the circumstances and the rivalry between the Tigers and Panthers.
"O'Fallon's always a tough competitor, and they came out strong tonight," Coach Ohlau said.
Harris led the way for the Tigers with seven kills in the match, while Garner and Suhre had six kills each. Morgan Tulacro served up five points in the first set to help Edwardsville, but overall, Ohlau thought it was a total team effort that helped win the match.
"Alexa did a nice job both defensively and offensively," Ohlau said, "and everyone played a key role. It was an all-around team effort."
Of course, Ohlau and her players are very happy to be playing the long-delayed season, and feels grateful that her players are having a high school season.
"Oh, absolutely," Ohlau said. "We went from no season in the fall to possibly having no season at all, and the girls are taking advantage of the opportunity to play high school volleyball."
Ohlau gave credit to all of her returnees for staying the course and coming out to play despite all of the uncertainty of if there would be a season or not.
"You never know who's going to play in an unconventional season, and all of the returnees to come back is really nice," the coach said.
The Tigers start the season 1-0, and will play at Collinsville on Thursday night in a match that starts at 6 p.m., then will play Belleville East at home next Tuesday and Belleville West, also at home, Mar. 24. Both matches are set to begin at 6 p.m.
