School Sports

VANDALIA – Both teams played with some inconsistency in last Thursday’s season-opener, but it was Vandalia which came up with big kills and serves when it mattered to knock off St. Elmo/Brownstown in a tight 25-17, 23-25, 25-23 win.

Senior Megan Godoyo and junior Johanna Walton each had a game-high 11 kills for the Lady Vandals (1-0), who served 11 aces as a team to pick up a win against their county rival by holding off a late comeback attempt in the final set.

It could be a tough task for the Lady Vandals to repeat as champions of the Altamont Tournament this Saturday.

In a pool that features the likes of Lincolnwood and Altamont, Vandalia will need to play nearly flawless volleyball to make the championship game for the second straight season.

Vandalia first plays at 9:30 a.m., taking on Lincolnwood and then battling Altamont in the next game.

The last game of pool play comes at 1:30 p.m. against Beecher City, and place games begin at 2:30 p.m.

VANDALIA – Sophomore Hannah Blythe continued her torrid start to the season against Greenville last Thursday, and she and the rest of the team now have a long break to further improve their games.

Blythe was a 10-5 winner in No. 1 singles for the third straight match, but that would be the only singles win for Vandalia, as Greenville would take the match, 6-3.

The Lady Vandals (1-2) will not be action again until Sept. 12, when they travel to Hillsboro for the start of a seven-event road stretch that spans to Sept. 30.

VANDALIA – The Vandal golfers won their second straight match last Thursday, defeating both Ramsey and Altamont at Vandalia Country Club.

Junior Zach Schaal and Richie Well paced the Vandals (5-3-1) by shooting 42s, junior Jake Bowen added a 43 and senior Jake Shulman shot a 45 to give Vandalia a team score of 172 and the win by five strokes.

Ramsey finished second with a 177. Included in the Rams’ total was a 42 by Brady Reiss, a 44 by Carter Hunt, a 45 by Michael Lay and a 46 by Marckus Coss.

Vandalia sophomore Jalea Pasley ran in the Metro-East Lutheran Debut Cross Country Invitational on Saturday. She placed 88th out of 411 runners after posting a time of 25:33.14.

Vandalia's Ben Strobel was also scheduled to run during the event, but his race was canceled due to the heat.

The Vandalia Youth Organization football teams swept East Alton-Wood River on Saturday.

The fifth-graders earned an 8-6 victory. The fifth-graders are 3-1 on the season.

The sixth-graders picked up a 36-14 win that kept the Jr. Vandals undefeated.

Also on Saturday, the seventh-graders won, 36-6, to even their record at 2-2, and the eighth-graders took a 28-24 win to move to 3-1.

VANDALIA – Gillespie scored a flurry of points off of Vandalia miscues in the second quarter to take a commanding halftime lead, and continued its dominance in the second half to take a 46-12 victory in Friday night's season-opener.

Junior Collin Nestleroad completed a pass to senior Rodney Tedrick for his first career passing touchdown, but he would later leave the game due to concussion-like symptoms.

He gave way to sophomore Tucker Willms, who would score his first career touchdown on a 2-yard rush with 1:46 left in the game.