 And because it was, next Tuesday can also be Super Tuesday.After
a great weekend of high-quality play against some high-quality teams
in the north Chicago suburbs, the Lincoln Lady Railers volleyball
team returned home last night to resume conference play. The Railers
had played well together as a team this weekend and finished with a
third-place finish in the Lake Zurich High School Tournament,
defeating a fine Oak Park Fenwick team. Many thought the Railers
"turned the corner" this weekend and were ready for a strong finish
to the 2007 season.
The Lady Crimsons from Jacksonville came to town last night to
try to eliminate Lincoln's hopes to tie for the Central State Eight
conference title. With one conference loss already, Lincoln could
not afford a second. Coach Howe and her team were not about to let
that happen. But the story is not that simple.
Not far away, in Chatham, the yet-undefeated Glenwood High School
had its destiny in its own hands. A Glenwood win over
"once-defeated" but yet "undefeated" (see below for controversy)
Sacred Heart-Griffin would assure Glenwood of no less than a tie for
the conference title. The only team standing in its way for the
outright title? You guessed it, the Lincoln Lady Railers. Next
Tuesday. At Lincoln.
As it turned out last night, Super Tuesday, Part II, is on. Both
Lincoln and Chatham held serve on their own courts. Chatham defeated
SHG in a three-game match and will enter next Tuesday's contest at
Roy S. Anderson Gymnasium with a 6-0 conference record. Lincoln
comes in at 5-1. If Glenwood wins, they are the outright champs. If
the Lady Railers win, co-champions are crowned. The CS8 could not
have scheduled a more dramatic ending if it had tried. But again, it
is not that simple.
Add to all of this the controversy created by SHG and you have
the kind of drama that reality TV can't even hope to create. The
Reader's Digest version of the SHG controversy goes something like
this. Springfield High School beat SHG in early September, giving
SHG a conference loss. But, SHG played Springfield again in
the Springfield City Tournament, and this time SHG won. So, reasons
SHG (in reasoning that one can only find at SHG), it is really
undefeated in conference play. Why? Because that earlier game
"didn't count" in the conference standings! SHG says that the
earlier game was a "pre-conference" game (I am not making this up,
folks), and thus they entered last night's match with Glenwood also
"undefeated." Having lost to Glenwood last night, SHG now claims to
have a record of 6-1, even though SHS believes SHG is 5-2. So, if
Lincoln wins next Tuesday, it appears that SHG will claim a third
portion of the conference title. We'll see…
But, let's not get ahead of ourselves. Back to last night.
LCHS had to defeat Jacksonville in order to create this possible
less-than-perfect but acceptable scenario for a co-championship
match. And so they did.
In game one of the match, the home team used multiple weapons to
crush Jacksonville by a score of 25-13. The service line weapon was
Ashley Bonaparte. "B" started off the night with an ace serve and
then had six of her eight service points in game one. Setters Ashley
Bonaparte (17 assists) and Molly Goodrich (11 assists) did an
excellent job of spreading the ball around to the entire Railer
front row all night. At the net Jamie McFadden had her usual killer
night (11 kills) as she blasted spike after spike at her opponents.
When McFadden wasn't doing the deed, then Hilary Hobler and Ashley
Meyrick were. Hobler had six of her eight kills in the first game.
When all was said and done, the Lady Railers prevailed 25-13 when a
Meyrick stuff put the ball on the Crimsons' side of the floor.
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In the evening's second game the Railers started slowly and then
relied on some great defense to come out on top. With the Railers
down 2-5, a nice soft tip by Abbie Feldman followed by two monster
blocks and a kill from Ashley Meyrick put LCHS up for the first time
at 6-5. An especially nice kill from the back row by defensive
specialist Samantha Lowman put the Railers up 8-5. Lowman also added
five service points and 13 digs to her team total. Meyrick dominated
the net throughout game two with her blocking and hitting. Abbie
Feldman joined in the defensive dominance with a couple of nice
blocks of her own. Molly Goodrich put the final icing on the cake
with an ace to end the game and the match at 25-16.
With Super Tuesday, Part I, in the books, the Railers play again
at home on Thursday in a nonconference match against only
once-beaten Bloomington High School. Thursday will be a real test of
what the Railers are made of. On "paper," BHS is better than the
Lady Railers. Fortunately, for the Lady Railers, volleyball games
aren't played on paper. Can the Railers "defend their house," or are
the Purple Raiders as good as their press says they are? The Railers
will definitely need to bring their A (or A-plus) game to win.
The Railers improve their overall record to 15-11 and, more
importantly, boost their CS8 record to 5-1 with one big
conference game left next Tuesday. This date has been marked on the
Lady Railers' calendar since it was scheduled. Everybody who is a
Railer fan ought to be out in force next Tuesday night to see if the
Railers can bring down the undefeated Glenwood Titans. The Titans
come to town with all-everything Hanna Werth at the center of their
game. Can the Railers limit her offensive attack? That will be the
question.
One Super Tuesday down, with hopefully one more to go.
GO, RAILERS!!
___
LCHS junior varsity prevails again
The junior Lady Railers were also victorious Tuesday night with a
balanced all-around attack. The Railers defeated their counterparts
from Jacksonville by a match score of 25-17, 25-15.
The Railers received solid play at the net from Emily Sheley
(eight kills, two blocks) and Hannah Sheley (six kills, two blocks).
Emily also had a great night at the service line (nine service
points, four aces), as did Katrina Schreiner with a team-high 11
service points, including three aces. Kayla Riggs ran the offense,
dished out 23 assists and added seven service points of her own.
The junior Railers improve to 15-7 overall.
[Rick
L. Hobler]
Respond to the writer at
rhobler@lccs.edu.
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