 For the Lady Railers, this week has been one of them.On Tuesday
night, the Lady Railers traveled to the always unfriendly confines
of old Griffin High School. As predicted and as usual, the referees
made several unbelievably bad calls. But none of that caused the
Lady Railers to lose Tuesday night. It is pretty clear in my mind,
and from the comments from the "peanut gallery" in the stands, how
the Railers lost. But, it wouldn't be in anyone's best interest for
me to tell you how I think the Railers lost -- so I won't.
The Railers fell to 2-1 in the CS8 standings, tied with SHG and
one game behind Chatham. An additional disturbing concern in the
loss was the postseason assignments from the IHSA this week. Those
Class 3A assignments place LCHS in the same sectional complex with
-- you guessed it -- SHG, as well as a tough Chatham team.
The challenge coming into Thursday night's match against Class 4A
Quincy High School was for the Railers to bounce back. The players
did -- eventually. The first two games were as different as night
and day. The deciding game was a battle, played to a mysterious end.
In game one, none of the combinations on the floor for the Lady
Railers worked. The Railers got down on the scoreboard quickly and
stayed down throughout the game. The Railers were down 5-10, 10-21
and finally lost 15-25. It was one of those games where nothing
seemed to go right for the Railers, from the service line to the
net. The easy QHS victory in this game may have been a blessing in
disguise for the Railers, as it seemed that QHS forgot that a
volleyball match consists of the best two out of three games.
While QHS relaxed, the Lady Railers bounced back, and game two
was just the opposite -- almost -- of game one. The Railers came out
of the huddle and went up quickly by a score of 10-4. The Railers
seemed to get to almost every ball and find almost all the open
spaces in the QHS defense. It was QHS that now seemed out of sync.
This time it was the Railers that built a big lead, and it looked
like it was going to be a rout. Not so, said the Blue Devils squad
as they heated up matters and almost succeeded in catching the
Railers. A final LCHS surge closed the matter out, and the match was
tied with the game score at 25-21 Railers.
The deciding game three turned out to be a neck-and-neck battle.
The two teams traded punches early, as evidenced by the scores: 4-4,
5-5, 5-6, 7-7 and 8-9. Both teams stuck with their strategy early,
and neither blinked. That is, until the Railers blinked when the
scoreboard turned to double digits and the lead favored Quincy by
three. QHS took the Railers' blink to the bank and finished the
night off with a 25-20 game and match victory.
Statistically for the Lady Railers, the two Railer setters handed
out 37 assists, with Bonaparte getting 25 and Goodrich adding 12
more. The service line was handled primarily by Lowman, with seven
points, one ace; Goodrich, with five points, two aces; and
Bonaparte, five points. On the front line, Jamie McFadden led the
way with 15 kills, followed by Abbie Feldman with eight and Hilary
Hobler with six. Meyrick and McFadden each recorded three blocks for
the Lady Railers.
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Unsolicited advice
In the category of unsolicited advice, let me say this to the
team. I am not one of those postmodern metro guys. My sports degree
comes from "Old School." I do not subscribe to sayings like
"Tonight's loss was a good loss." I didn't see any of the Railer
players happy or cheering after their loss on Tuesday or Thursday.
No one who works as hard as current-day high school athletes have to
work, year-round, wants to lose. All losses are bad in a player's
mind, period.
I do, however, subscribe to the theory that some losses
are worse than others. And while there are common factors in how the
Railers lost both matches this week, Tuesday's loss to SHG was
worse than Thursday's loss to QHS. On Tuesday the Railers got walked
on. On Thursday they went down with a fight.
Keep up the fight, ladies! Overcome the things that are bringing
you down. Encourage each other, stand up for each other, and keep
talking. Keep growing as a team. High school volleyball is supposed
to be fun -- start having some!
The Lady Railers have a short break from match play this weekend
and then return to conference play on Tuesday, at home, against
Taylorville. Lincoln cannot afford to lose any more conference
matches if they want to have any hope of tying for or winning the
conference championship. Take no team for granted.
GO, RAILERS!!
Junior varsity continues to win
The junior Lady Railers improved their season record to 9-4 with
a three-game match win over Quincy. The hard-fought match witnessed
more than one Railer come-from-behind surge. In the end the
scoreboard recorded a 26-24, 17-25 and 16-14 close win for the home
team.
Hannah Sheley led the Railers in kills with 10, followed by Emma
Anderson and Paige Boyer with five each. Abby Olson led from the
service line with eight points. Kayla Riggs shouldered the setting
chores, picking up 21 assists.
[Rick
L. Hobler]
Respond to the writer at
rhobler@lccs.edu.
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