HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. • Edwardsville's first trip to state turned out to be memorable.
Just not in the way the Tigers had hoped.
Vernon Hills jumped all over Edwardsville from the opening point en route to a dominating 25-11, 25-18 victory in the quarterfinals Friday afternoon at Hoffman Estates High School.
The Tigers' journey to state covered nearly five hours and 300 miles, but their exit turned out to be rather quick. The Cougars, who extended their winning streak to 23, needed just 34 minutes to win their match, advancing to the semifinals against Naperville North.
"I think we knew that we may somewhat be the underdogs coming from southern Illinois and not being a Chicago team and not playing many high-level Chicago teams all year," Edwardsville coach Andy Bersett said. "We came out and made some errors, and we just couldn't recover well enough."
Beating Neuqua Valley on Tuesday to become the first non-Chicagoland school to qualify for state, Edwardsville (25-2) watched its 24-match winning streak come to a screeching halt against a balanced Vernon Hills squad.
The Cougars (36-4) seized an 11-4 lead in the first game behind three kills from junior outside hitter Thomas Robinson (team-high seven kills). The Tigers looked on the fringe of stopping Vernon Hills' momentum when a kill by Eric Fitterer briefly stopped a Vernon Hills scoring surge at 15-8.
The Cougars, capitalizing on their size advantage and experience playing top teams from the Chicago area, closed out the first game on an ace by Nick Garpow.
"We knew that they were going to be big and good, but they just outplayed us" Bersett said. "A good team is going to do some things against you. It wasn't coming together for us today. Our boys played well all year long. We just didn't play well enough today."
The Tigers showed signs of recovering from a rugged first game, when they battled the Cougars early in Game 2. Fitterer, who finished with a team-high five kills, handed the Tigers their first lead of the day at 6-5 with a kill. The Cougars took advantage of three Edwardsville errors to seize a 9-6 lead.
"We had a pretty good look at them," Vernon Hills coach Chris Curry said. "Some buddies ended up with a pretty good scouting (report). They didn't surprise us with anything different. We got some blocks in the end and put a little pressure on them."
The Tigers slashed the deficit to 13-12 following a kill by John Pranger, but the Tigers' comeback bid was halted by a countless errors and a match-winning kill by Mikey Kelly.
For Edwardsville, the trip to state came a few years early. The third-year program exceeded Bersett's timetable. Perhaps more importantly, Edwardsville got valuable state experience even in a frustrating two-game loss.
"This is definitely a huge step," Bersett said. "We want to take the focus off that we're here, not because somebody gave something to us or because they had to have a southern Illinois team. We came here because I felt like we're one of the top eight teams in the state. It wasn't a fluke, it wasn't by chance or by accident. We earned the right to be here."
