GRANITE CITY – Edwardsville and O’Fallon had split a pair of girls volleyball matches earlier in the season going into their IHSA Class 4A Granite City Regional championship match Thursday night.
Both teams left everything on the floor, especially during a very tight third game, much like a heavyweight title fight.
In the end, the Panthers managed to deliver the knockout blow in the final moments as they took an 18-25, 25-17, 26-24 win to advance into next week’s Springfield Sectional semifinal, where they’ll meet up with Breese Mater Dei at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Alton.
“They left it all on the floor tonight,” said Tiger coach Jami Parker. “It was just who was on top there at the very end of the match. Both teams were playing well, both teams were playing hard.”
“It’s a battle,” said Panther coach Melissa Massey. “After that first game, I said ‘we always go into survival mode’. Both teams did. Jami’s got an amazing squad; it was a dogfight.
“Both teams were just going at it; I’m excited to be on this side of it.”
The Panthers seemingly were going for the knockout early; they jumped out to leads of 6-0 and 8-2 in the opening game before the Tigers rallied to tie it at 8-8. Both teams traded points until the Tigers managed to open up a lead, which they built on to win the opener. O’Fallon did much the same in Game 2, building a lead to keep the Tigers on their heels; Edwardsville could get no closer than seven points to the Panthers as OTHS forced a third and deciding game.
Neither side could get more than a two- or three-point lead in the decider, and Massey had urged her team not to get on a roller-coaster that could have wound up costing them in the long run going into Game 3. “The biggest thing I talked to my girls about was staying emotionally secure, no roller coastering; just stay there, and that’s kind of what we worked on in practice,” Massey said. “I think they did a great job of that.”
When it was brought up that the finale was much like a title fight, Massey said, “it was crazy. There’s no other way (to describe it). I was hoping they would feed off staying composed and I think they did a great job.”
Both teams traded big spikes and dinks but could never get to a big lead; there were several ties and lead changes throughout the game. The big blow came when, tied at 24-24, the Panthers’ Alison Fournie came through with a spike that the Tigers couldn’t return to set up match point, and O’Fallon’s Elisa Smith wasted no time in bringing the match to an end with a spike that sent the Panthers and their Gold Rush supporters group into a frenzy.
Smith led OTHS with 12 kills on the night, with Imani Williamson adding 10 kills and Mackenzie Koester nine kills. Annie Ellis had nine kills and three blocks for the Tigers, with Rachel Pranger having 14 kills and Sydney Wright six kills. Rachel Verdun had 28 assists for EHS and Megan Woll 16 digs.
