VOLLEYBALL: PCHS takes care of Steeleville
Fighting through a rough start to both sets, Pinckneyville took care of business against Steeleville on Monday night winning 25-16, 25-18 to improve to 17-13 on the year.
Sophie Keith and Keeley Gray each had 5 kills and Emma Banach and Kylee Kling both finished with 4. Mayci Doerflein led PCHS in assists with 13 and digs with 9, and Mady Epplin added 7 digs.
Despite some unforced errors in the early moments of each game, Pinckneyville played plenty of offense at the net and was in control for the majority of the match.
"I will take out instead of in the net any day," said Lady Panthers head coach Cathy Kohnen. "I'd rather you go down swinging than make some sort of weird error on our side. I want them to swing hard every time. Everything that they do should be aggressive and strategic, and that's what we're working on before Regionals to try and take care of that."
This past weekend, Pinckneyville went 2-3 overall at a tournament in O'Fallon, Ill., facing a strong group of teams from the metro east region.
On Friday, PCHS was defeated handily by tournament host O'Fallon 25-9, 25-7, but rebounded to knock off Salem 25-19, 25-19 to finish second in their pool.
On Saturday, Pinckneyville lost to the eventual tournament champion, Chicago Marist, 25-11, 25-11, but then defeated Red Bud 25-19, 25-18. That placed them in the championship of the Silver Division, where they were defeated by Belleville East 25-19, 27-25.
For the tournament, Keith and Kling each had 20 kills, Banach had 17. Doerflein, an all-tournament selection, had 72 assists, and Mady Epplin had 34 digs.
"We were in a great tournament over the weekend at O'Fallon, seeing some great teams play and playing some great teams," said Kohnen. "We gained a lot of experience through that. We're really working hard on going for the kill every time. It's hard to do against a good team, but we're trying our best to finish the play every time that we touch the ball."
The Lady Panthers host Marissa on Thursday for Senior Night at PCHS before the Regional tournament begins next week in Red Bud. Pinckneyville is seeded fourth and will take on the winner of Trico and Chester on Tuesday night at 7 p.m.