COLLINSVILLE – The Edwardsville girls volleyball team took control of the match at key moments to come away with a 25-17, 25-16 win over Collinsville in a Southwestern Conference match Tuesday evening at Vergil Fletcher Gym.
The Tigers scored the final eight points of the first set to break a 17-17 tie, then at 16-14 of the second set, scored nine of the last 11 points to win the set and match.
Edwardsville head coach Lisa Orlet was very happy with her team’s efforts coming off a successful weekend at the Crossroads Classic in Effingham, where the Tigers finished third, their best showing in eight years.
“I was really proud of our girls,” Orlet said. “Their goal was to get in here and take care of business. We had had a really strong weekend in Effingham, and I didn’t want them to have a lull, and there were times over the weekend we would let teams score about four points on us in a row, and we’d have to catch back up, so that was really our goal, to stay in our game and to reduce the unforced errors. So I was really proud of them tonight.”
That the Tigers were able to take care of business and play their game was very pleasing to Orlet.
“Right, exactly,” Orlet said. “They took care of business. Collinsville’s a better team than what they showed in that second set, so I don’t anticipate that it’ll be that quick of a game next time that we play them. They have a lot of strong athletes, and a couple of Division-I players on their team. So, yeah, the girls had a lot of fun, and didn’t let down, so that was our goal, and I was very proud of them.”
The Tigers are have built a lot of momentum since their weekend in Effingham, and things are starting to come together for the team.
“They’ve been working really hard,” Orlet said, “and they had back-to-back weekends out of town, so I was hoping they wouldn’t get tired, but they’ve been good about taking care of themselves, and making sure that their studies are intact, and being prepared. They’re a much more mature team this year, being a year older, but also, their volleyball IQ has gotten a lot higher as well. So, it makes it easy on me,” she said with a laugh.
The Kahoks stayed in the match very well and played hard, but a pair of bad rotations gave Edwardsville the momentum they needed to take control and pull away.
“The first set, we got stuck in our rotation, and they rallied off seven or eight points to finish the set on us,” said Kahok coach Abby Hanger, “and we were there until about 17-all. And in the second set, the same thing kind of happened; we hung in there, and then, we got to one bad rotation, and we kind of couldn’t dig ourselves out of the hole.”
Collinsville hung in there and stayed in the match throughout, which Hanger was very happy with.
“Oh, yeah, the did play very hard,” Hanger said, “but Edwardsville’s a great school, and they’re very tough every year, but especially this year, and we just mentally couldn’t kind of pull ourselves together. Physically, I think we did pretty well, we went for every ball, we played really hard. We just, mental times, made some errors that I wish we wouldn’t of.”
Hanger felt Hannah Scrum was one of the Kahoks’ standout players on the evening.
“I think Hannah Scrum, out outside senior,” Hanger said. “She served received really, really well, and was our go-to hitter, so I think she did a nice job for us tonight.”
Instead of goals, Collinsville has three standards that the Kahoks try to live up to in each of their matches.
“What we kind of do is we have three standards, instead of goals,” Hanger said. “One of our standards is we communicate all the time, during the play and after the play, all that. Two, we go for every ball, so that’s that effort; we’re really pushing. And our third goal is to play for each other, play for the girl standing right beside you, and that’s what we’re trying to play for.”
The first set began on an even keel, with both teams trading points constantly, with the Tigers going to a 13-10 lead on the strength of a Storm Suhre kill. After another exchange of points, the Kahoks were able to come back on a Scrum spike and service to tie the set at 15-15. The two teams exchanged points again to make it 17-17 when, with Collinsville’s Katie Dawson serving, the Tigers were able to get the ball back when a shot was deflected out off a Kahok player to make it 18-17. Alexa Harris then served up four points in a row, helped by a Suhre tip and another kill to make it 21-17, forcing a Collinsville time out. Harris then served out the set, getting kills from Rihanna Huebner and Suhre to close out the set 25-17 and take a one-game lead in the match.
Edwardsville jumped out to an early 5-2 lead in the second set, but the Kahoks were able to come back to within 5-4 on an ace by Kristyn Mitchell. After an exchange of points, the Tigers got back to a three-point cushion at 9-6 as Maddie Isringhausen hit on a spike and Suhre and Gabby Saye combined on a block. The Tigers were able to maintain their lead, eventually going to 14-10 before Collinsville rallied to make it 14-13. At 15-14, with the Kahoks serving, a violation gave the ball back to the Tigers at 16-14, and Lexie Griffin served up five points in a row, aided by a pair of Isringhausen kills, to make it 21-14. The two teams again exchanged points, and then Huebner served up the final two points of the game, with a Suhre spike ending the second set and match 25-16.
Isringhausen had eight kills and five digs on the evening, while Suhre had six kills and five blocks. Harris had five kills, four digs, 12 points and a pair of aces, while Morgan Tulacro had 15 assists, Griffin had seven assists, seven points, two aces and four digs.
The Kahoks are now 5-7 overall on the year, and will play Alton Thursday night at home, then go to Centralia Sept. 23. Hanger knows that the Kahoks will keep striving and looks forward to the remainder of the conference season, where the schedule is now a home-and-home format.
“Yeah, it does,” Hanger said with a smile, “and you know, the conference is different this year. We play everyone twice, home and away, so our season has started off more competitive than normal. But we’re looking to build on that, and just get better every day.”
The Tigers are now 12-2, and host East St. Louis at Lucco-Jackson Gym on Thursday, then stay in the conference next week with matches at Belleville West Sept. 24 and against Belleville East Sept. 26. Orlet knows there are more challenges coming up, and also knows there’s never a dull moment when it comes to the SWC.
“No, never a dull moment,” Orlet said with a smile. “Especially with the change in the schedule, where we play them twice. Just taking it one step at a time, and the girls are really, really committed, so like I said, it’s easy on me.”
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
