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CHATHAM – Edwardsville's girls volleyball team learned a few lessons from last year's loss to Normal Community in the IHSA Class 4A Chatham Glenwood Sectional final.
The lessons learned from that defeat served the Tigers well Wednesday night as they advanced to Friday night's Normal West Super-Sectional with a 25-22, 25-21 sweep over Pekin in that same sectional final; Edwardsville went to 32-3 on the year with the win and will meet up with Minooka, 25-20, 25-20 winners over Lisle Benet Academy in the Aurora Waubonsie Valley Sectional final Wednesday, at 7 p.m. Friday at Normal West with a trip to next weekend's IHSA Class 4A state tournament on the line; the winner will meet the Geneva Super-Sectional winner, either St. Charles North or Downer's Grove North, in a state semifinal match at 7 p.m. Nov. 10 at Redbird Arena on the Illinois State campus in Normal; the final is set for about 8:55 p.m. Nov. 11.
Friday's Super-Sectional will be the Tigers' first since 2012, when they fell to Benet at Normal West; EHS' last trip to the state tournament came in 2010, where they finished third. The Tigers head to Normal West at 32-5 on the year, while Pekin was eliminated at 31-8.
“It's great to be returning and we have a great group to return with,” said Tiger coach Jami Parker following the match. “These seniors (for the Tigers) have been starting two, three, four years; some of them have been starting all four years.”
While the opportunity to reach the state tournament is huge, Parker is still focusing on the next task – defeat Minooka Friday night. “We have a big match to go through on Friday,” Parker said. “We're going to go back to practice tomorrow and get ready for them; it is going to be a big game Friday night.
“It's a great group; they're really working hard in the gym, so we're going to keep working and keep working towards our goal, which is state.”
The key to the match was a simple one, Parker felt. “The girls were moving well on defense,” Parker said. “We had a lot of good touches on the blocks, we took some really smart swings; it was nicely done. Our middles (middle-hitters) definitely played a big role in our match tonight.
“We had a couple of really big digs coming down the stretch in that second game; we had kind of a big blocking run kind of early in the game which the girls were able to maintain. They never let up.”
The teams started out the match trading points, neither side gaining an advantage; Edwardsville went on a small run to get to 7-4 up on the Dragons and managed to forge the lead to 9-7 before Pekin scored a pair of points to draw even at 9-9. Edwardsville answered back with a run that got the lead to 13-9 before the Dragons managed to pull to 14-11.
From there, Edwardsville took control, building the lead to 16-12 before Pekin got to a one-point deficit at 17-16. The Tigers slowly built the lead up again, getting to 21-18; Pekin rallied back to get to 21-21 before Edwardsville got to 24-21 before Pekin got to 24-22; the Tigers then wasted no time to close out the game.
Game 2 started out evenly as well, neither team gaining much of an advantage before Pekin managed to squeeze out a 10-8 lead on Edwardsville before the Tigers answered back to take a 13-10 lead; Pekin rallied to 14-13 behind before managing to forge a 16-16 tie. The Tigers answered with building to a 21-18 lead, taking advantage of a couple of Dragon miscues before getting to the verge of advancing at 24-20; the Dragons got to 24-21 before Edwardsville closed out the match.
Megan Woll led the Tigers with an eight-point match on serve with Rachel Pranger adding four points; Woll added 30 assists and Kate Martin had 11 kills, with Pranger getting nine kills on the night; Alexa Harris had two blocks and Martin, Pranger and Rachel Verdun each contributed a block on the night.
Parker is very proud of the team and what they have accomplished thus far this season.
“I'm very proud of these girls,” Parker said. “They're not only great, talented volleyball players, they're just great people; they make great choices both on and off the court – they're super-close friends on the court, they're fun, they have a great sense of humor and the gym is always lively, yet they know how to work hard; they know how to train hard and know how to compete.
“You can't ask for anything better – it's the best of both worlds.”
