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After two traveling weekends of
grueling tournament play, the Lady Railers are happy to be working
their own gym. Two weekends ago the Railers traveled to Washington,
Mo., for the always tough St. Francis Borgia Tournament. LCHS came
away with third place, only losing in the semifinals to a tough
Jefferson City, Mo., team.
Last weekend the Lady Railers traveled
to East Peoria and had a run-in with their old postseason nemesis
Champaign Centennial. In last year's postseason match (who could
forget it!) LCHS came out on top to win the sectional title. This
year, Centennial narrowly defeated the Railers, leaving LCHS with a
second-place finish at East Peoria. There is little doubt the
Railers and Centennial could meet again in the near postseason
future. Hopefully, last weekend's match will be fresh in their
memories when the postseason arrives.
The Lady Railers returned home Monday
night to face Mount Zion and won -- but made it harder than
necessary, I'm told. LCHS won a close match, but with the difference
in talent levels, the score should not have been as close as it was.
(LCHS school board responsibilities prevented me from actually
seeing the match.) I did get to watch the JV match against Mount
Zion and, with excellent serving from freshman Melissa Ramlow, the
JV won easily, 25-14 and 25-9.
Last night the Central State Eight
Conference season began with a visit from the Taylorville Tornadoes.
It was a short visit -- for the varsity. Apparently the LCHS
freshman and JV squads wanted to give their parents and the fans
their money's worth. Both the freshman and the JV played three-game
matches, with a combined time of around 2½ hours. The LCHS freshman
came out on the short end, but the JV squad pulled out a 25-23,
22-25, 25-6 match win. Excellent performances were turned in during
the JV match by Michelle Fitzpatrick, Erin Frick and Natalie Boward,
among others.
The Railer varsity squad, on the other
hand, apparently just wanted to get home. After waiting until 8 p.m.
to begin their match, they quickly disposed of the clearly
outmatched Taylorville squad. By 8:23 it was all over. After
Samantha Conrady, Maria Benitez and Brooklyn Robbins put on a
serving clinic, the match was history, with the scoreboard reading
25-11, 25-7. The Lady Railers' match record now stands at 13-2-1.
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In Game 1, the Railers' super-senior
starter Samantha Conrady was dominant at the net and the service
line. After three early kills, "Sam" moved to the service line with
the score at 8-7 Railers. When Sam rotated back to the net, the
score was 18-8 and the game was never in question. After Taylorville
managed three points on Railer errors, Brooklyn Robbins decided it
was time to finish Game 1. Five successive serves, including two
aces, did the job, and the Railers had Game 1 in the book at 25-11.
The rest of the net, during Game 1, was controlled mostly by
Michelle McFadden and Megan Hoffert.
Game 2 was almost a mirror image for
the Railers, but this time it was Maria Benitez taking control of
the service line. With McFadden and Hoffert firmly in charge of the
net, the Railers quickly moved to a 6-3 margin. Michelle McFadden
then found herself at the service line, where she reeled off three
straight points for the Railers, including two aces. With the
Railers up 10-4, the ball was handed to Maria Benitez to serve. She
decided to keep it. By the time the ball went back to Taylorville to
serve again the score was 20-5 in favor of the Railers. During
Maria's run on serving, she had plenty of help at the net from the
Railers' only other senior, Ali Hower, as well as Conrady, Mel Boyer
and Kendall Paulus. Samantha Conrady then brought the score to 22-7
with a powerful kill at the net. Finally, appropriately, Sam took
the rest of the wind out of the Tornadoes by ending the match with
three service points. Game 2 ended at 25-7, with the Railers barely
breaking a sweat.
Some of the stats read as follows:
kills -- Conrady 8, McFadden 7; blocks -- McFadden 4, Conrady 2;
assists -- Robbins 22; service points -- Conrady 13, Benitez 10,
Robbins 8; digs -- McFadden 7, Robbins 5, Conrady 5; aces -- Benitez
3, McFadden 2, Robbins 2.
The Lady Railers head to Rantoul this
Thursday and then return home for a rare Saturday match at 11 a.m.
CS-8 play continues for the Railers next week with matches at
Chatham and home against rival Sacred Heart-Griffin.
It's time to
step it up, ladies! GO, RAILERS!
[Rick
L. Hobler]
Respond to the writer at
rhobler@lccs.edu.
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