Edwardsville's boys volleyball team shows strong net play in regional win over Granite City

GRANITE CITY - Edwardsville’s boys volleyball team is headed to the Granite City Regional championship.

The Tigers defeated host Granite City 25-14, 25-7 in the regional semifinals on Tuesday night to advance to tonight’s championship against 16-19-1 Belleville West.

Granite City stayed close the early part of the first contest against Edwardsville with the game knotted at 6-6, 8-8 and 9-9, but eventually the Tigers’ strong forces at the net, especially Nick Allen and Jack Grimm, wore them down. Grimm had seven kills and Allen six kills in the match.

Edwardsville head boys volleyball coach Andy Bersett said his team came out a little sluggish with not playing for a week, but eventually pushed that away and put together a strong game two.

“For whatever reason sometimes we don’t start like we want to start always, but luckily we were able to overcome it,” he said. “I didn’t dislike the way we were playing but we made too many errors. We can’t go in there and just try to bury the ball. They were prepared for some of our difficult balls.

“Bob Dresner did a good job controlling the ball. It is playoff time and there are some nerves out there. I liked the way we came back. The balls were moving in the second game.”

Edwardsville will need to come out stronger tonight against Belleville West and be more dynamic as attackers, Bersett said.

“We need to make better plays and give different speeds on our swings,” Bersett said. “We just need to be ready tonight against Belleville West. It will come down to execution.”

Statistically Tuesday night, Curt Sellers had nine service points, with Spencer Burbach tallying eight service points and Grimm had seven. Sellers had two of five Tigers’ aces. Lucas Verdun had 17 assists and Dresner had seven assists.

The Tigers are 24-8 overall on the season with the win over Granite City.

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