JERSEYVILLE - After an emotional senior night ceremony, the Jersey Community High School Panthers volleyball team truly persevered and took down the Civic Memorial High School Eagles (26-24, 27-25, 25-18) Thursday evening on the Panthers’ home court.
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As the first set began, both the Eagles and the Panthers came out of the gate strong. Both teams showed their strengths in attacks and blocks. Jersey senior Hannah Green (#8) showcased her skills to bring in some great kills for the Panthers.
When they leveled out the store 7-7, the Eagles began taking advantage of some of the Panthers’ openings. Before they knew it, the Eagles were ahead of the Panthers 19-13. Without hesitation, the Panthers made a five-point comeback, allowing the Eagles only to reach 21 before they really began to fight back. After a couple of botched serves by CM and out of bound spikes by Eagles senior Kylie Linkeman (#15), as well as a couple of other errors, the Eagles and Panthers found themselves tied at 24-24. The Panthers solidified their win of the first set with Ally Schroeder (#25) producing an excellent hit that pushed them to 25. The set ended with the Eagles falling short to Jersey 26-24.
After the switch for the second set, both the visiting and home crowds were riled up. This set in particular held 12 instances where the Panthers and the Eagles shared the same score. Junior Mackenzie Thurston (#2) landed some excellent attacks for the Panthers after missing a couple at the beginning of the set. Faith Franke (#18) dished out some great attacks that CM junior Annika Ochs couldn’t save.
When the score reached 18-16 in the Panthers’ favor, one particular play that would have been in bounds was revoked by one of the IHSA officials and was given to Civic Memorial, tying score at 17. It seemed that this move seemed to rattle the Panthers, and even though they made a great push toward the end, the Eagles took the second set with a score of 27-25.
“Some of our girls don’t take adversity very well, whether the referee makes a bad call or the girls think they made a bad play,” Jersey Head Coach Bob Siemer said.
CM Coach Amanda Biggs was proud that her girls could change their tune after the first set and play to win the second.
“We came back that second game and proved that we weren’t going to quit or walk out of here in two games,” she said.
The Panthers started out incredibly strong, taking a 7-1 lead against the Eagles early on by the way of Thurston’s great attacks.
The team was clearly communicating and calculated each and every play with intense skill. After a time out was called from CM, the Eagles began to apply more pressure toward their competitors. However, it wasn’t enough for the very determined Panthers. at the end of the third and final set, the Panthers bested the Eagles 25-18.
“What a great match,” Coach Siemer said. “It’s nice to come out on top. These two teams are about as evenly matched as we can be.”
Coach Biggs was impressed with the hitting that came from the Panthers this evening.
“They really know how to utilize their hitters,” she said. “We’ve kind of struggled a bit on the block.”
Inching closer to postseason play, each loss holds opportunity for growth for the Eagles.
“We need to take the negatives out of situations like these and turn them into positives headed into the postseason,” Coach Biggs said.
Thurston led the Panthers (15-15 overall, 2-8 MVC) with 11 kills and 18 digs, and Greene contributed 10 kills, Aly Varble four kills, five blocks and 11 points, Kate Walsh 18 assists and 10 points, Raeann Maltimore 15 assists, Caroline Crawford 20 digs and Margy Tepen 16 digs.
The Eagles (11-14-3 overall, 0-10 MVC) were led by Kennedy Carnes' nine kills, with Susan Buchanan scoring six kills, Sydney Marshall 24 assists and nine points and Annika Ocha 21 digs.
CM will be taking part In this weekend's Quincy Notre Dame tournament to close out the season, then meet up with East Alton-Wood River in next week's IHSA Class 3A Greenville Regional. Jersey will take part in next week's Class 3A Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin Regional against Springfield Lanphier.
