EDWARDSVILLE - The Belleville West girls volleyball team showed much resilience and fought back from a 5-0 second set deficit to forge a 21-21 tie late, but Edwardsville came up with the answers and took a straight-set win over West 25-18, 25-22 in a Southwestern Conference match Thursday evening, Sept. 26, 2024, at Liberty Middle School.
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The Tigers are playing their 2024 season at Liberty, due to repairs being done to the floor at Lucco-Jackson Gym, Edwardsville's home gym, after the floor began warping after the gym sprang leaks, causing much water damage to the floor.
As far as the match went, the Tigers were able to hold off the Maroons each time West tried to put together a rally. The second set run, where the Maroons fought back to tie the set, showed much resilience and courage for West, but the Tigers were able to find the answers in order to pull out the win.
"I felt good," said Edwardsville head coach Heather Ohlau. "We took time yesterday to kind of prepare for this game, and we went over what we needed to do tonight to be successful, and I believe we executed that game plan. It came down to toughness in the end, Belleville West was fighting their way back, like the always do, and it just came down to us finally making that decision. we're not going to let this team take us, we're going to tough it out, and we're going to come out on top. Which is what our team showed."
The Maroons deserved much credit for coming back from the bad start to the second set, but the Tigers also showed some courage and resilience, as well.
"Yep, Belleville West is always a formidable opponent," Ohlau said. "They always come with the heavy hitters, and the defense that keeps that ball alive. And for us to be able to match that tonight, it just showed the potential this team has, and we're just going to continue to grow."
Early in the first set, the Tigers made three big saves of potential Maroon kills that kept the [play going, which Edwardsville eventually won, and it helped set the tone for the set in a very hard-fought and tough match.
"These matches are what you kind of play for," Ohlau said, "and what you plan for, because these are the fun ones, where you get to see the toughness and resilience, and the grit your team has. And our girls stepped it up tonight, and did that."
The Tigers are close to the halfway point of their season, and Ohlau knows there are plenty of touch conference matches and challenges ahead for her team.
"We're about halfway through," Ohlau said, "we'll start seeing conference opponents again, but then, we also have two tough tournaments up in Chicago, where we really see how battle-tested we are. And then, we also pick up a tough Cor Jesu match, and (Breese) Mater Dei. So we've got a still pretty heavy load, but I think we're progressing in the right direction to get us ready for that postseason play."
For the Maroons' part, West played well, but came up short at the end, but showed a lot of good things for their part.
"You know, it was a tough loss," said Maroons head coach Mc'Ashah Franklin, "That is a very good Edwardsville team, and they picked us apart. But I'm really proud of my girls' resilience in battling back. We started in a hole, 0-5, and then, we clawed back at the end. It says a lot about the team's persistence and resiliency."
The Maroons did rally back to tie the set up late, but the Tigers scored four of the set's last five points to take the win.
The opening set started out with West jumping to an early lead, but Edwardsville made three consecutive spectacular saves to keep the play going, finally winning the point to go on top 3-2 It seemed to spark the Tigers, as Edwardsville went on to 6-3 lead, eventually growing to 9-4.
An exchange of points followed, with the Tigers maintaining a three-point lead most of the way, before the Tigers were able to extend the edge to 21-15. The Tigers scored four of the set's final seven points, with a service ace the set winner at 25-18, putting Edwardsville up a set in the match.
The momentum held for Edwardsville, as the Tigers scored the first five points of the second set, capped off with a Kate Cadagin kill to make it 5-0. The Maroons spent a time out to readjust, and when play resumed, West cut the deficit to 6-3. Madelyn Ohlau and Livia Goebel helped the Tigers extend the lead to 11-3, but the Maroons fought back behind good play from Mia Leech, to cut the lead to 11-5, but Edwardsville came right back to 20-14 lead After the Tigers went to 21-21-17, West, behind Mya Schutzenhofer's service fought back to score four points in a row, tying the set at 21-21.
The Tigers went on to score four of the match's last five points, ending things, when Ciara Cunningham drove home the match-winning kill to give the set to the Tigers 25-22, and the match 2-0.
The Tigers improve to 10-7, and are home in a rematch against O'Fallon on Tuesday, and are at Cor Jesu in Affton, Mo. in south St. Louis County next Thursday in a Missouri five-set match, both matches starting at 6 p.m., then host Collinsville Oct. 8 at 6:15 p.m.
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
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