Tigers Girls Volleyball Squad Rallies To Win Second Set, But Panthers Deal Edwardsville First Conference Loss

Coach Heather Ohlau praises Edwardsville’s resilience against O’Fallon, highlighting the competitive spirit rather than the loss itself.

Colin Feeney, Contributing Sports Writer

Oct 8, 2025 11:20 AM Oct 9, 2025 5:04 PM

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The Tigers Savannah Ford sets up a play in Tuesday's match against Edwardsville. (Dan Brannan Photos). EDWARDSVILLE - The Edwardsville High girls volleyball team came back to win the second set and tie the match, but in the end, O'Fallon was able to take charge in third and deciding set, thwart a Tiger rally, and give Edwardsville its first Southwestern Conference loss 25-23, 20-25, 25-18 in a scrappy and well-played match by both teams Tuesday night, Oct. 7, 2025, at Lucco-Jackson Gym.

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The result left both teams tied for first in the league at 7-1, with four matches remaining for both schools. The two teams split their series this season, both times, the road team winning.

Despite the undefeated conference season ending in a loss, there is still much to be proud of and still plenty of work ahead for the Tigers.

"I'm not really concerned about the winning streak," said Edwardsville head coach Heather Ohlau. "It's more about how we showed up and played. O'Fallon came ready to fight. They wanted this match. They fought, they battled, they scrapped, they brought it to us. In the end, that's what won."

The Tigers didn't play badly either, coming back to take the second set after being down one set, and fought hard in the third set. O'Fallon came up with plays when they needed them at the right time.

"We just couldn't string some of those plays together," Ohlau said. "We scrapped, we scrounged, we got some good kills, but we weren't able to make strings of them, where O'Fallon was able to. That's what it really came down to."

The Tigers will regroup and keep on working towards their ultimate goals, as Ohlau knows there are still some good things ahead for the Tigers in the season's final weeks, going into the IHSA playoffs.

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"We're going to use this as a learning tool," Ohlau said. "We've got to bounce back. Every time we take a loss, we've got to learn to grow, and make those changes to where we're able to push through when things aren't going the way we tried."

The Tigers will be competing in two important tournaments in Chicagoland this and next weekend, plus the remaining schedule, and it's something Ohlau is looking forward to.

"We travel up to Chicago this weekend and next weekend to be able to play some of the tough competition from the northern half of the state," Ohlau said. "And that's what it's going to take, So, we're going to take what happened tonight, the things we did well, expand on those, and work on correcting some of the errors that we're not as strong tonight. We'll take it one day at a time."

The opening set started with the teams trading points, with O'Fallon eventually taking a 9-6 lead. Edwardsville came back to within 9-9, but the Panthers upped the lead to 11-8, with Kayla Williams serving O'Fallon into a 12-8 lead. Edwardsville came back to within 14-11, and the teams again traded points before the Panthers took a 19-15 edge behind Kennedi Walls' service. The Tigers rallied to tie the set at 21-21, and the teams traded points again before, at set points at 24-23, after a Panther kill rounded out the opening set at 25-23, O'Fallon going one up.

The second set started much the same way, with the teams exchanging points until the Tigers went ahead 7-4, with Madelyn Ohlau and Ari Fasaro leading the way. O'Fallon fought back to tie the set 7-7, but then, Edwardsville went on a roll scoring nine of the next 11 points to go up 16-9. The score eventually became 24-16 when O'Fallon rallied to score four points in a row to cut the lead to 24-20, but the Tigers got a tap-in shot from Livia Goebel to win the set 25-20, evening the match and forcing a decisive third set.

O'Fallon took an early 5-1 lead at the start of the third set, forcing the Tigers to take a time out. After the time out, Edwardsville rallied to 5-4, and then 8-7, but O'Fallon came up with the answers, Alli Hamm and Williams leading the way as the Panthers went ahead 17-11. Goebel and Ciara Cunningham then led a Tiger rally that pulled Edwardsville to within 19-15, with O'Fallon scoring the six of the final nine points of the match, the end coming on a Jori Posey kill that gave the Panthers the 25-18 win and the match two sets to one.

Ohlau served up eight points and three aces for the Tigers, while Savannah Ford served up six points and two aces, Bella Bollman had five points, Lucy Malawy had four points and an ace, Goebel came up with three points, Ohlau also had 11 kills and a block, Goebel had nine kills and two blocks, Cunningham had four kills and two blocks, Collins Cleland had four kills, Ford had 14 assists, and Malawy had 13 assists.

The Tigers slip to 13-6, and are at Collinsville on Thursday at 6 p.m., then play in the tournament in Chicagoland on Saturday, meeting Plainfield East at 8 a.m., St. Charles East at 9 a.m., Normal Community West at 11:30 a.m., and Naperville North at 1 p.m. Edwardsville returns to conference play on Oct. 14 at home against Belleville East at 5:30 p.m., then is at Breese Mater Dei Catholic Oct. 20 at 7 p.m.