ALTON - The energy was extremely high at Alton High School this Thursday evening when the Edwardsville High School Girls Volleyball team faced off against the Redbirds in one of their final matches of the regular season.
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Edwardsville won the match in two games, 25-12, 25-19. The Redbirds struggled to keep up with the quick and precise play that occurred throughout the course of the evening. Spikes attempted by Redbird Jada Green (#27) were frequently blocked by the front line from EHS during the first set.
The Tigers seemed entirely in control of the first set. At a certain point, the young athletes held a stagnant score of eight points while the Tigers in orange’s score kept climbing after each serve. Before they knew it, EHS was up by 10 points. Alton attempted through great set ups by Sydney Schmidt (#33) and eventually got their score up to 12. Unfortunately, that was where it remained for the rest of the set. The first set ended in favor of the Tigers with a 25-12 score.
During the second set, the Tigers used the momentum gained from the first set to their ultimate advantage. Twirling across the court in perfect harmony, all of the girls seemed to be totally in sync with one another. In the best blocking of the season, the front line of Edwardsville was nearly flawless courtesy of the extremely tall Annie Ellis (#13), Corrine Timmermann (#18) and the sharp setting by Rachel Verdun (#6).
“I have amazing players all around, but the best part is that they’re truly all good friends,” EHS Head Coach Jaime Parker said. “They spend a lot of time together on and off the floor. The chemistry and relationships they have is really what makes this floor work. It’s a fun group to coach.”
The Tigers solidified a score into the high teens before Alton attempted their last chance of salvaging the set to force a third. A few out of bounds spikes and the final offensive push by Alton made their score up to 19. However, it seemed to be too late for the Redbirds as their competitors were already in the twenties. The Tigers took the match at the end of the second set with a score of 25-19.
After the game, Coach Parker was incredibly proud of her girls, especially after last week’s tournament match with O’Fallon High School.
“We ebbed and flowed a little bit,” Parker said. “There were times our hitters and blockers looked great and then there were times we were a touch off for four or five points.”
As her team just earned a slice of the Southwestern Conference title, Parker is insistent that her girls really don’t want to share.
“They’re going to come out fighting for it next week,” Parker said, “But I think they’re ready.”
Despite their loss, AHS Head Coach Stacey Ferguson was extremely honest of the way her girls played.
“I feel like whether we come out on top at the end of the night, I expect to see us competing better than we are competing now,” Ferguson said.
The demands of the latter half of the season is really putting some strain on the Redbirds as a whole, which has been a difficult marker of the last three or so years for Ferguson’s team.
“I feel like the bottom half of our season is so heavy with these loaded teams and it’s one after the other,” she said. “We don’t even get a break. Having this harder end of the season shows us exactly what we face in the post season. It’s good to have that competition level that pushes us to get better.”
Unfortunately, Ferguson believes her squad is getting depleted and worn down through the tough losses that they have experienced and should work on their synchronization and communication heading into postseason play.
