The Sentinel

Prep Sports Notebook: Urbana falls in Thursday tennis, SJO wins

Madigan, Poungingal pick up victories

Eisla Madigan and Matika Pounginjai were the only two Urbana players to post wins in the singles competition in the Tigers dual match against Danville. After five singles and a pair of doubles matches, UHS fell 5-2 to the Vikings at the Danville Tennis Center on Thursday.

Madigan defeated Vikings' Lexi Foley 8-2 at #4 singles and Pounginjai won by default on the #5 court.

The Tigers return to competition next Thursday, September 30, to host Mahomet-Seymour at Blair Park.

Match Results:

Singles:
No. 1 - Lexi Ellis, DANVILLE def. Myra Stevens, URBANA, 8-0
No. 2 - Ava Towne, DANVILLE def. Hannah Null, URBANA, 8-0
No. 3 - Hannah Schroeder, DANVILLE def. Alisa Tangmunarunkit, URBANA, 4-8
No. 4 - Eisla Madigan, URBANA def. Lexi Foley, DANVILLE, 8-2
No. 5 - Matika Pounginjai, URBANA def. N/A, 2-0

Doubles:
No. 1 - Lexi Ellis/Lexi Foley, DANVILLE def. Hannah Null/Eisla Madigan, URBANA, 6-3 , 6-4
No. 2 - Ava Towne/Hannah Schroeder, DANVILLE def. Matika Pounginjai/Alisa Tangmunarunkit, URBANA, 6-0 , 6-0

Spartan win road match at GCMS

Abbey Dow and Claire Huffman won their matches on the singles courts to give St. Joseph-Ogden a 2-0 lead to start the team's final road match of the season. Double duos Abby Behrens & Hope Rajlich and Katie McDermott & Emma Rydell brought home wins to give the Spartans a 4-1 victory on Thursday.

SJO will play their final three regular-season contests at home starting next Wednesday when they host St. Teresa. The team will then close out the year with back to matches with Maroa-Forsyth on October 11 and Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley in the finale on Tuesday, October 12.

Match Results:

Singles:
No. 1 - Abbey Dow, SJO def. Katie Steidinger, Gibson-City Melvin Sibley High School (GCMS), 8-7
No. 2 - Claire Huffman, SJO def. Audrey Iverson, Gibson-City Melvin Sibley High School (GCMS), 8-0

Doubles:
No. 1 - London Hixson/Lexi Darbutt, GCMS def. Jacey Lewis/Kelsey Martlage, SJO, 8-7
No. 2 - Abby Behrens/Hope Rajlich, SJO def. Syda Schlickman/McKenna Crowley, GCMS, 8-0
No. 3 - Katie McDermott/Emma Rydell, SJO def. Emily Hood/Kadence Crowley, GCMS, 8-3

Prep Sports Notebook for September 23

Unity continues to roll

The Unity volleyball team picked up win number 15 after a 2-0 win over visiting Paxton-Buckley-Loda. Emma Bleecher had eight kills and seven digs while teammate Payton Kaiser added another six kills and four digs in the 25-22, 25-15 conference victory.

Chemla score four goals

Teo Chemla scored his first of four goals for University High within the first minute of his team's 8-1 road win against Judah Christian. The junior found the net again 10 minutes later to give the Illineks a 3-0 lead. Later, in a two-minute span, he added goals #3 and #4 starting at the 39-minute mark.

Noah La Nave produced a hat trick on passes from Arya Thirodira, Chemla, and Benji Chang.

Senior Ryland Graham, on an assist from Lawrence Zhao, scored the team's final goal of the match in the second half.

Roesch pounds nine kills

Shaking off Tuesday's conference loss to Unity, the St. Joseph-Ogden volleyball team bounced back to beat Pontiac on the road 25-16, 25-12.

Addie Roesch put away nine kills and Kennedi Burnett added another six to the stat book. Becca Steinbach was credited with 23 assists. Senior Hannah Fox led defensively with 10 digs.

The Spartans are back on the court on Monday at Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley for another non-conference test.

Hoopeston Area knocked off Oakwood-Salt Fork for a 3-1 conference win. The Cornjerkers improved to 9-0 in conference play and 13-4-1 overall.

After OSF's Carlie Thompson scored the first, and his team's only goal on an assist from Saul Carrillo, Hoopeston's Kayden Wallace, Ben Brown, and Isias Diaz scored one goal each.

Unity soccer shutout

The Rockets dropped their Illini Prairie Conference match against Rantoul, 7-0. The Rockets, still looking for their first win this season, will play their next two contest away.

The two-match road campaign starts with a trip to Illinois Valley Central on Saturday for another conference match against the Grey Ghost. Then on Monday, the team plays at Fisher.

Sweet victory: SJO picks up dramatic win over STM

St. Joseph-Ogden senior Will Childers celebrates his team's 1-0 victory over visiting St. Thomas More Thursday afternoon. The Spartans improve to 9-6-1 on the season on a second half goal from Spencer Wilson. Up next, SJO hosts Georgetown-Ridge Farm at home at 9am on Saturday. The program will also recognize this season's senior athletes.

PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks

Rockets disrupt Spartan system with their own in 2-0 conference win

(St. Joseph) - With bragging rights and a conference loss on the line, Unity's road match in the St. Joseph-Ogden High School Main Gym had all ambiance and weight of a state semifinal match. There were two vocal student cheering sections, almost 300 fans, and two teams both loaded with athletic talent ready to clash. In the end, the Rockets broke a five-season losing streak, systematically defeating the Spartans, 2-0.

PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks

Maddie Reed sets the ball behind her during the second set action against the Spartans. Reed collected 19 assists and seven digs for the Rockets. Tucking away their second conference win of the season, Unity improved to 14-0 with the win over SJO.

Trading salvos in the first set, SJO (10-4) and the Rockets (14-0) held the scoring deficit at any given time to just points until the score reached 11-all. Suddenly, there was a shift in the offensive momentum that had Unity surged ahead on the scoreboard courtesy of a five-point run to go up 16-11 over the St. Joseph-Ogden. Unable to hold serve or shift the flow of the game in their favor thanks to their opponents' scrappy defensive play, the Spartans were outscored 9-2 from that point on en route to a 25-13 finish.

"We struggled on defense. They did a nice job mixing up their offense, keeping us on our heels all night long," said SJO head coach Abby McDonald. "We were never in system from the beginning. Our defense wasn't there tonight. Defense wins ball games and it was a real struggle for us."

While SJO struggled on defense, the Rockets excelled at it on Tuesday evening.

"We changed up our defense to defend against their outsides better," explained Unity's new head coach, Erika Yerry. "We know they have some pretty good hitters on the outside so we focused on blocking line and moving our defenders behind it so we could dig a few more balls and be in system."

The second set started much like the first with teams trading points until the score was tied at 7-all. The Spartans quickly added two more points forcing Yerry to call a timeout at 10-7. Soon, down by five, the Rockets started to methodically claw their way back into the set.

Yerry credited her team's success to playing tough defensively and serving tough.

"Our main goal was to get them out of system. So as long as we kept digging and serving them to be out of system then we had a chance to score a point," Yerry said. "My libero, Taylor Henry, did a good job of adjusting her defensive position and Katie Moore did a great job of block (the) line."

Down 21-19, Unity closed out the second set with six consecutive points for the 25-21 victory.

"We've got to clean up our serve receive. Our first ball contact was difficult for us tonight," McDonald pointed out. "Our setter was working as hard as she could. We just struggled in lots of areas of the game. I think the biggest part is just or mental game right now has to be stronger."

While it may have been a tough loss to swallow against their cross-county rivals, the Spartans were in a similar position with four losses at the end of September in 2019. The program did not lose another match until the state semifinal, setting up a Class 2A third-place finish.

"We've got to have leadership when we need it and not just when things are going good. It's got to be there when things are rough. These are all learning moments for us," McDonald said looking at the competition that still lies ahead. "Hopefully we can use this to make us better. We always say 'What comes in October'. Hopefully, this match is one they can look back on and learned something from."

Spartans unable to tarnish unbeaten Rockets

Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks

St. Joseph-Ogden's Shayne Immke leaps above the net to try and block a kill attempt by Unity's Macie Knudsen. Immke and the Spartans fell on their home court after two sets, 25-13, 25-21.

"We struggled on defense. They did a nice job mixing up their offense getting us on our heels all night long," said SJO head coach Abby McDonald. "We were never in system from the beginning. Our defense wasn't there tonight."

"Defense wins ball games and it was a real struggle for us."

SJO falls to 10-4 on the season while the Rockets record continues on unblemished at 14-0.