The Alton Redbirds and Edwardsville Tigers celebrated tournament championships on their home courts Saturday afternoon.
The Redbirds closed with a three-set victory over Orchard Farm to clinch their third straight championship at the Redbird Classic. At Edwardsville, the host Tigers took out Southwestern Conference rival O’Fallon in straight sets to win their Tiger Classic for the first time since 2007.
Alton setter Sydney Schmidt was named the tourney MVP at AHS, where the Redbirds also placed Annie Evans and Savannah Fisher on the all-tourney team.
“The girls made it happen,” Alton coach Stacey Ferguson said, “one match at a time.”
The Redbirds went 5-0 in the tournament, with Granite City going 4-1 to finish second. Triad (3-2) placed third, with Gillespie, Southwestern and Orchard Farm all going 1-4.
Alton was tested in its final match with Orchard Farm, with the Eagles winning the second set to force a third game that Alton won 15-7. The Redbirds committed seven service errors in the set they lost. “You just can’t win like that,” Ferguson said.
The tourney run extended Alton’s winning streak to seven straight since a season-opening defeat at Columbia. Work remains for the Redbirds, but their coach was encouraged by their fight against adversity.
“We didn’t give up,” Ferguson said. “We had situations where it could have gotten ugly and turned for the worse. The girls found a way to pull together and finish on top, so that’s always a positive.”
Southwestern’s Lexy Hall, Gillespie’s Amanda Schmidt, Orchard Farm’s Julie Johnston, Triad’s Megan Schmiske and Hannah Johnson, and Granite’s Megan Burge and Morgan Tanksley joined the three Redbirds on the all-tourney squad.
Edwardsville pushed its record to 6-0 heading into Wednesday’s showdown with Missouri power St. Joseph’s Academy at Edwardsville.
The Tigers fended off a previously unbeaten Eureka (Mo.) 25-21, 29-27 in the straight sets in the semifinals to earn their title shot. Eureka came back to defeat Breese Mater Dei for third place.
“I was really impressed with the girls,” Edwardsville coach Jami Parker said. “They were steady the whole time, there were no major ups or downs. They just played their game and did a great job.”
The championship match was a rematch of last season’s Class 4A sectional semifinal that saw O’Fallon beat the Tigers in three sets. Both teams are loaded for 2016, but Edwardsville struck first.
“O’Fallon, for us, is always an emotional match,” Parker said. “It has a lot of highs and a lot of lows because the two teams are rivals. One of the things we talked about was maintaining focus and just staying level.”
Edwardsville beat O’Fallon 25-22, 25-21 to claim an elusive title in their own tourney. The Panthers are 6-1.
Tigers junior Rachel Pranger was named the tourney’s MVP. Edwardsville’s Kate Martin and Megan Woll, both juniors, were all-tourney selections.
Greg Shashack may be reached at 618-798-1486 or on Twitter @gregshashack
