Lady Panthers get one win at Alton Tourney
BY AARON OTTIS
SPORTS EDITOR
ALTON – With an improved showing at the Alton Redbirds Tournament last weekend, the Lady Panthers have already tied their 2007 win total.

Jersey also did something that did not occur at least year’s tournament: Even in their four losses, the Lady Panthers were competitive through most games. And senior Kelsey Thomas was named to the All-Tournament team.

“Thomas had a great tournament all the way around,” Jersey head coach Bob Siemer said. “She was all over the floor. She served excellent as our first server. She had four points right off the bat to start it. Every game we played, she started by getting us some points.”

Civic Memorial and Jersey met Friday night to begin the tourney for both teams. The Eagles were able to take the win, beating Jersey 25-19, 25-20. The Lady Panthers then dropped their second match of the night to Roxana, who won the first game 25-9. Jersey fought back in the second game, but eventually lost 25-22. Thomas had five points and one ace, while Shelby Woelfel had three points on 10 attacks, four kills and three blocks. Rachel Ward led the team with six points.

“With Carrollton…we were winning 23-18 in the second game and we gave up a seven-point run to lose the second game,” Siemer said. “I told the girls going into the match against Alton High that those are exactly the type of things that we can’t do. If we can keep teams to two- or three-point runs and get the ball back to serve, we have a much better chance of winning.”

Siemer went on to say that keeping the competition’s offensive outbursts in check can let the Lady Panthers capitalize on things they have been doing right, like serving well as a team and making better passes around the court.

“Our serving over the weekend was excellent,” Siemer said. “We were hitting about 90-percent as a team, which is great. And that was everybody. We didn’t have anyone that had more than two or three bad serves all weekend.”

Jersey suffered two losses to open Saturday, but came together to defeat Alton Marquette in the final game of the tourney.

Despite producing better statistics than last year, and getting a win in the tournament, the Lady Panthers are still struggling to maintain confidence in their own abilities when facing foes that look tough on paper.

“One of the girls on the team said ‘Hey, what happened to CM? They weren’t beating us very bad,’” Siemer explained. “I said ‘Hey, I think you need to ask yourself if we were playing better. Maybe it is our team playing better, not the other team playing bad.’”

Jersey began a stretch of four consecutive Mississippi Valley Conference games Tuesday.

Visiting Waterloo swept the Lady Panthers, winning 25-19, 25-14 at varsity, 25-4, 25-17 at JV and 25-9, 25-13 at the freshman level.

Kelsey Thomas had five points and 21 digs. Shelby Woelfel had five points, four kills and 21 digs, while Shelby Smith posted 15 digs.

Jersey is now 2-9, and will face Mascoutah on Thursday.