El Paso-Gridley finishes in fourth at the IHSA State Volleyball Tournament
NORMAL — It was a tall task for the El Paso-Gridley in Saturday's IHSA Class 2A third-place volleyball match against the Elmhurst Timothy Christian Trojans at CEFCU Arena in Normal. After battling the giant front line of the Mater Dei squad in Friday's semifinals, the Titans faced yet another challenge with the attack of the Trojans, which featured Texas commit Abby VanderWal.
Despite a push in set two to even the tide, the Titans (31-10) ultimately fell short to Timothy Christian in a 2-0 (20-25, 15-25) defeat to the Trojans to claim fourth place in Class 2A.
"It means a lot," EPG head coach Andrea Hardwick said of her team's finish. "We've had a lot of adversity in the last year, so I think this brings something to celebrate back to El Paso-Gridley. It's a huge deal. I'm really proud of these girls for bringing that to the community."
The Trojans were on the attack from the start of the match, jumping out to leads of 10-6 and 20-13. A trio of kills by EPG's Addi Hale pulled the Titans back to within striking distance at 20-16. An attack by Aubrey Phillips made it 24-20 in the late stages of set one, but the Trojans finished off the set with a kill by VanderWal to take a 1-0 match advantage.
"They have grit," Hardwick said of her team. "They didn't give up; they were not intimidated. They just kept going and doing the best that they could. I was just really proud of them. There is so much to be proud of."
Timothy Christian again jumped out to an early lead in set two, forcing the Titans to claw their way back into the set. After the Trojans led 16-10, back-to-back errors by Timothy Christian gave the Titans some life at 16-12.
A kill by Hale and an attack error by the Trojans again closed the gap for the Titans at 19-15, but from there Timothy Christian closed the door with a barrage of aces and kills to end set two with a 25-15 victory.
"What you saw out there today is more representative of what we've been all year," Timothy Christian head coach Scott Piersma said. "We had our struggles yesterday, but the girls came ready to go today and put it all out there."
Hale led the Titans with five kills. Reese Deckard finished with 10 digs for EPG.
"I'm really proud of our team," said Deckard. "It's not the place we wanted, but we worked hard and made it here. I'm just so proud of us."
Timothy Christian (38-3) received 12 kills by VanderWal, with Miriam Pozdol-Niego adding 13 digs.
