EDWARDSVILLE - The sound system at Lucco-Jackson Gym conked out before the start of Edwardsville's boys' volleyball home and conference opener Tuesday evening against O'Fallon before the National Anthem. The fans at the game took over and sang the Anthem a capella, which brought out a shout out from Tiger head coach Scott Smith before the match started, mentioning the same thing happened before the opener in 2008.
It turned out to be one of the highlights of the night, as O'Fallon's defense took charge and prevented the Tigers from going on surges, which helped give the Panthers a 25-19, 25-21 win over Edwardsville.
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O'Fallon especially went on surges late in each set, while the Tigers fought back, but the Panthers were able to close out the sets in going on to the win.
"Right now, I'm thinking of how O'Fallon did such a great job of playing defense and making it difficult for us to utilize our strengths. They limited their mistakes, it was not the attacking that we saw last week against CBC. But it was just, they were so consistent, that we had a difficult time to defend against it. We had trouble getting our blocks up and we had trouble putting a ball in system to be able to attack the way that we're capable of."
There were still many positives to take away from the match.
"Absolutely," Smith said. "There's definitely positives from it. It's more experience once again. I feel we were a different team today than we were last Thursday as far as on the court goes. It wasn't the enthusiasm necessarily, it wasn't the desire, it was the ability to put everything into motion, stay in system and play powerful volleyball. We played OK volleyball and that was the difference between what we're capable of versus what we weren't able to do against a strong O'Fallon team."
It's still early in the season, and practice sessions have gone very well for the Tigers, and many of the mistakes can be cleaned up in practice, with everything heading in the right direction.
"Exactly," Smith said. "And speaking of practices, with the swing players who are JV players, we have a couple of freshmen; one of the freshmen played on Thursday due to other circumstances, that they were able to go in there and it was great. And we have a lot of talent that's young as well, we had a lot of talent that's experienced, relative experience with COVID. But it always hurts to not beat O'Fallon, because they're just such a rival and we respect them so much with the Sheehans and our experience with them the last 14 years. We have work to do and it wasn't what we did wrong, it was just what we didn't overcome."
The opening set saw the Panthers score three of the first five points before the Tigers took their first lead of the night 4-3, with the teams trading points most of the early part of the set, neither team taking more than a two-point lead before a Panther net violation gave Edwardsville an 11-8 lead. O'Fallon was able to come back to eventually tie the set and take a 13-12 lead, which saw the points see-saw between the two sides, bringing the set to 17-17. The Panthers, behind good service from Ben Spear, a kill from Nathan Finck and a combined block from Connor Sorgea and Sam Hayes gave O'Fallon a 20-17 lead, forcing an Edwardsville time out. The Panthers came out and scored five of the last seven points of the set, led by Sorgea as O'Fallon won the first set 25-19.
The second set started out with an exchange of points that made the score 6-6 before the Tigers, behind kills from Liam Marsh and Evan Reid and a missed kill, took a 9-6 lead. O'Fallon came back to within 9-8 before a Zach Hoffmann kill and another point gave Edwardsville an 11-8 advantage. Again, the Panthers rallied, and an exchange of points brought the score to 17-17 before O'Fallon took charge, getting a kill to make it 20-17, forcing a Tiger time out. Edwardsville was able to come to within 21-20, but the Panthers closed out the match with four of the last five points, taking the set and match 25-21.
Wyatt Hunt served up a point for Edwardsville to go along with eight digs and 14 assists, Tyler Cherenka had 10 digs and two assists, Jacob Geisen had two points, three kills and two digs, Hoffmann served up three points and an ace, with four kills and six digs, John Kreke served up seven points and an ace to go along with three kills, two digs and an assist, Marsh had a point, a kill and a block and Reid came up with eight kills and five digs.
The Tigers are now 0-2 for the season and next play at Collinsville on April 5 before going to Alton on April 12. Smith knows it's still early in the season and there's still plenty of time to correct the mistakes and to get on a roll.
"Exactly and I told the boys that there's going to be losses," Smith said. "There's going to be losses and we just have to make sure we're reflecting upon what we can do better for the next time. We've got a great group of guys. It's wonderful."Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
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