OFALLON, Ill. • After a pair of three-game losses to Belleville East during the regular season, O'Fallon boys volleyball coach Tim Gagen was hoping for a different result Wednesday.
The result was different, but it wasn't what Gagen had in mind. This time, East needed only two games to beat the Panthers, 27-25, 25-18, in the title match of the O'Fallon Regional.
The Lancers (21-4) advance to the Belleville West Sectional, where they will face Edwardsville (22-1) or East St. Louis at 7 p.m. Friday in a semifinal. Those schools will meet Thursday in the finals of the Granite City Sectional, which was postponed Wednesday due to the weather.
"Belleville East is a very good team and there's a reason they were the No. 1 seed," Gagen said. "They played very smart and we could never really get the momentum on them. We had our moments where we played well, but we just couldn't get over the hump."
East coach Stefanie Marlin, meanwhile, was pleased with her team's performance.
"(Setter) Ben Thomas did a great job and spread the ball around for us," Marlin said. "He's always very aggressive at the net.
"We really seemed to keep the momentum a lot. Our blocking looked OK tonight and we've been working on that in practice."
In the first game, an ace serve by Kevin Ward gave East a 5-0 lead. The Lancers went ahead 12-3 when O'Fallon's Mitch Gibbs hit the ball out of bounds.
The Panthers (15-10-1) kept chipping away at East's lead, finally tying the score at 22 when East's Stephen Pruitt hit the ball out of play. The Lancers responded with kills by Brad Buchanan and Pruitt, taking the game to match point at 24-22.
O'Fallon, though, came back again as kills by Jon Dawson and Mitchell Maves tied the score at 24. A kill by East's Alex Taylor made the score 25-24, but the Lancers couldn't put the game away as Seth Procasky's served beyond the back line.
A kill by Sam Pruett put East back on top, and this time, the Lancers were able to close out the game on an ace serve by Ward.
"That first game, how we finished was huge," Marlin said. "It was great how we started, but I can never get comfortable playing O'Fallon. They never give up and they fight tooth and nail for every single ball."
For Buchanan, the first game looked all too familiar.
"We take the lead and we're celebrating and we're on fire and then we kind of slack off," said Buchanan, a senior outside hitter.
"O'Fallon did a great job and they came back and gave us a run for our money. Toward the end, we really had to fight, but Kevin came in and gave us two great serves and put away the game for us."
O'Fallon came out strong in the second game, taking a 10-5 lead on a kill by Maves. But a kill by Buchanan put East on top 17-15 and the Lancers never relinquished the lead.
"We just weren't protecting the ball on our side enough and we were letting them run their offense," Marlin said. "Once we got it in our heads to start playing a little harder, we did OK."
A kill by Taylor made the score 23-18 and East added another point when Adam Heyden hit the ball out of bounds. The Lancers clinched the game and the match on ace serve by Taylor.
"Our guys played their hearts out and they have nothing to be ashamed of," Gagen said. "We came out flat and again you've got to hand it to Belleville East. With the weather, they were delayed and had to sit in their gym and travel over and they came out focused and ready to play."
Barring an upset, East will have a rematch with Edwardsville in the sectional semifinals. Three of the Lancers' losses have been to the Tigers, including two in the Southwestern Conference and one in the championship match of the O'Fallon Invitational.
"We don't want to lose to them for a fourth time," Buchanan said. "We know (Eric) Fitterer is going to get his points, so we're going to have to shut down their other hitters. If we can do that and pass well, we have a good chance of beating them."
