After losing to Belleville West in last year’s postseason, the Edwardsville girls volleyball team clinched the Southwestern Conference Championship, defeating Belleville West 2-0.
“We set a number of goals each year, and [conference champions] is always one that we strive to achieve, but we’re also expected to achieve it,” junior Ciara Cunningham said.
Without the win, Edwardsville would’ve shared the championship with Belleville West and O’Fallon. The Tigers have now won 10 straight conference championships including three ties.
“It was an expectation of ours to really push knowing that there was a three-way tie tonight and to find a way to come out on top,” Cunningham said.
The path to repeating as conference champions wasn’t without obstacles. The team had to develop a new mindset when they found out they wouldn’t be able to play at the high school due to construction in the gym.
“It was definitely upsetting to not be able to play in our home gym,” junior Savannah Ford said. “But we always said that it doesn’t matter what gym we’re playing in. We will always do our job and play our game.”
Despite the relocation to Liberty Middle School, EHS students still supported the team.
“Support from the student section made our season great,” senior Shelby Lee said. “After lots of people showed up, I knew that playing at Liberty wasn’t going to make a difference.”
Since dropping their home opener to O’Fallon, the team has won all but one of their home games, including a victory over Mater Dei, the No. 3 ranked team in Illinois, according to MaxPreps.
“We had a lot of ups and downs but now we’re on the up, and we’re staying consistent,” senior Addie Reader said. “In the past years we’ve been a little not consistent, and this year we’re finally gaining the consistency.”
The gym construction didn’t just affect games – it also complicated practices. With less time and space in the smaller B gym, which only had two volleyball nets instead of their usual three, the team had to adjust their routine.
“We have to share this gym space some days,” Ford said. “We don’t get the same amount of hours to practice as normal.”
This forced efficiency in practices. The team had to always have a plan to work on crucial reps like setter hitter connections and blocking. When they were out of the gym, building team connections was vital.
“Chemistry is really important because every player on the court is crucial to winning points,” Lee said. “Having good connections off the court aids to doing well on the court.”
Building those connections was a unique challenge for the young team. Last year, seven of their seniors from the team that made sectional semifinals graduated, leaving many roster spots to be filled by new varsity players.
“We’ve had two freshmen coming in right now, a sophomore that played varsity last year and JV players,” Cunningham said. “They’ve all stepped up to make this season possible.”
The team plays at home Tuesday, Oct. 29 against Granite City in the first round of the playoffs. If both Edwardsville and Belleville West win, they’ll meet again in the second round Thursday, Oct. 31.
“The past two games we’ve had against them, we’ve made our statement,” Cunningham said. “We’re really confident going into [a rematch], but we still need to play as a team and play our game.”