School Sports

VANDALIA – The Vandals are getting closer to putting it all together.

The inexperience still hurt in last Friday’s 40-12 home-opening loss to Staunton, but the offense showed some big-play ability and the defense held the Bulldogs without a score on multiple possessions.

“There were flashes when we executed that showed what we could do,” said coach John Stout. “We went down the field a couple of times and scored, and should have had a couple more.”

VANDALIA – A week of practice comes at a good time for the Lady Vandals.

Vandalia struggled to play as a team in two of the three sets last Thursday in a 17-25, 25-14, 18-25 loss to Southwestern in South Central Conference action.

And with a week off before Thursday’s game at Hillsboro, coach Allison Hall said the team would have practices focused on working together.

VANDALIA – Junior Mercedes Reynolds isn’t typically the most vocal player on the court for the Lady Vandals.

But after playing a vital role last Thursday, that all could be changing.

Reynolds entered a 17-25, 25-15, 18-25 loss in the second set, because coach Allison Hall had confidence that she could provide a spark for the team, which struggled in all aspects of play during the first set.

The Vandalia tennis team placed third at Saturday’s Highland Doubles Tournament, with three pairs of players finishing with 2-2 records.

Sophomore Hannah Blythe and senior Karlee Brimberry took half of their matches in the No. 1 flight, junior

Courtney Ulmer and senior Megan Dothager took two wins in the No. 2 flight and freshman Rebekah Sanders and senior Kendall Leander were 2-2 in the No. 5 flight.

The Vandalia golf team has had plenty of time on the course in past week as the season crossed its halfway point.

But the team gets a break now, as the next match won’t be until next Monday at Indian Springs Golf Course in Fillmore.

That comes a week after the last match, which saw the Vandals place third at Greenville.

Junior Jake Bowen had a 45 for the Vandals (6-9-1), and he was followed by junior Zach Schaal (46), freshman Alec Schroeder (50) and senior Jake Shulman (51) for a team score of 192.

VANDALIA

Vandalia’s Ben Strobel has recently placed first at a pair of cross country meets.

At Carlinville, he won in a time of 15:36.

At Teutopolis, he won with a time of about 17:30.

Also running cross country is sophomore Jalea Pasley, who placed third at the race in T-Town, with a time of 24:01.

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The soccer team on Monday lost a South Central Conference match at Litchfield, 11-3.

The junior high girls basketball season begins next Tuesday with the annual Old Capitol Classic in Vandalia.

Played at the junior high and elementary schools, both Vandalia’s seventh- and eighth-grade girls teams will be in action, along with two other area schools.

St. Elmo/Brownstown and Mulberry Grove are also in the field, as are Pocahontas, Greenville and Altamont.

The seventh-grade tournament will be held at the elementary school.

Vandalia Mutual Field will be the host for the Egyptian-Illini Conference baseball tournament, which will start next week.

Patoka earned the regular-season championship and will be the No. 1 seed, and Brownstown/St. Elmo will be No. 2.
Beecher City/Cowden-Herrick is the No. 3 seed, and Ramsey and Mulberry Grove round out the field.

The tournament is slated to begin on Monday afternoon, with No. 4 Ramsey and No. 5 Mulberry Grove battling at 4:15 p.m.

BROWNSTOWN – Patoka senior Johnnie Clift didn’t care that he had just pitched two days prior to last Wednesday’s Egyptian-Illini Conference battle with Brownstown/St. Elmo.

The ace of the staff was injured, and the Warriors needed a win to earn the top seed in the EIC Tournament, so he stepped up and fired a complete game to give Patoka a 1-0 victory.