Skip to content

Lady Vandals win conference championship

Just get it in.

That is all Vandalia volleyball coach Allison Smith wanted from her leading server on what would prove to be the game-winning point against Pana last Thursday.

“I looked at her, and said, ‘You have got to get this in,’” Smith said. “She had missed two serves prior to that, but stepped up as a senior and put it over.”

Austyn Krueger’s serve was perfect, and after a Lady Panthers player got into the net while scrambling to recover Vandalia’s attack, she and the Lady Vandals were celebrating a 25-23, 25-20 victory and the team’s first South Central Conference championship since 2008.

Krueger, who leads the Lady Vandals with 48 service aces, had watched her previous two serves dart into the net, and was so focused on earning the game-winning point that she didn’t even notice the thunderous roar coming from a huge home crowd.

“At that point, I didn’t even hear anything,” she said. “It was all silent.

“It was awesome.”

The victory avenged Vandalia’s first loss of the season – which came on Sept. 20 at Pana in a nonconference game – and gave the team some much-needed momentum as it headed into this week’s regional tournament.

Prior to beating Pana last Thursday and Gillespie last Tuesday, the Lady Vandals (23-5, 9-0 SCC) had gone 2-4 and seemed to have had lost some of the confidence that they were carrying when they had just one loss.

“The Lady Vandals are back, and right in time,” Smith said. “We talked about having no regrets and leaving everything on the floor, and everyone left it all out there.”

Senior Sierah Ruffner led Vandalia with eight kills against the Lady Panthers (27-7), and Krueger and fellow senior RaeChelle Leiken each added seven in a balanced attack that left Pana out of sync and consistently found gaps in the Lady Panther defense.

The game started slowly, however, as Pana secured the first three points before a kill and ensuing ace from Krueger got the Lady Vandals on the scoreboard.

Three straights kills from senior Shelby Foster, Leiken and Krueger later forced Pana to call a timeout while trailing 12-7.

And what happened after that showed how badly the Lady Vandals wanted the win.

Foster served an ace out of the timeout, but the referees declared that the ball landed out of bounds, and a Vandalia kill on the next point was negated because the referees did not see a Pana player tip the ball.

Those two plays set up a 6-0 run for Pana, but unlike in the first matchup, Vandalia’s players maintained their composure.

“I called a timeout and told them that even though those two plays were in, there’s nothing we could do to change things,” Smith said. “Even if we lost, it wouldn’t have mattered.”

The Lady Vandals slowly built their lead back up before Pana rallied to tie the set at points 21-23.

Back-to-back kills by Ruffner that landed away from Pana players ended the set.

“We did a nice job of making Pana scramble, and we didn’t do that when we went there,” Smith said. “It was our goal to keep them uncomfortable, and keep the momentum on our side.”

The momentum from Ruffner’s kills carried over into the second set, as Vandalia never trailed.

Ruffner had two of the first four kills in that set, and she attributed her big game to her teammates.

“I had a pretty good game, because Gabby (McNutt) had good sets and our back row had good passes,” she said.

Pana would eventually close the gap to a point, and several times Vandalia made a big play but wasn’t able to follow it with a second big play.

Following the score at 14-13, Vandalia recorded two blocks, two kills and an ace, but could not follow any of them with another point until a strong directional kill from Leiken made the score 21-19.

“Anything that pumps up the team is good,” she said. “If I was the one who got the kill, I am happy about that, but we had a lot of kills out there.”

An attack error from Pana followed, and Ruffner then earned a kill to force Pana to use its final timeout.

Pana scored a point on a kill, but Krueger killed off the next point to set up her final serve.

“We all played to our best potential for the first time all season,” she said. “It was awesome to see it all put together.”

Thursday, Oct. 18
Vandalia 25, Pana 23
Vandalia 25, Pana 20
Kills: Ruffner, 8; Krueger, 7; Leiken, 7; Foster, 2; Megan Godoyo, 1.
Aces: Godoyo, 2; Krueger, 1.
Assists: McNutt, 9; Jessica Sullens, 8; Ruffner, 2.
Blocks: Leiken, 1½; Foster, ½; Krueger, ½; Ruffner, ½.
Record: 23-5 (9-0 SCC)

The Vandalia volleyball team celebrates after winning the South Central Conference championship with a 25-23, 25-20 victory against Pana last Thursday.

Leave a Comment