VOLLEYBALL: Pinckneyville beats Du Quoin, stays atop conference

The Lady Panthers continued their strong run through conference play on Tuesday night, knocking off an improved Du Quoin team 25-16, 25-20 to improve to 6-1 in the Mississippi Division.

Sophie Keith led Pinckneyville with 6 kills, Kylee Kling added 5, Keeley Gray had 3.

"Sophie is a great placement hitter, she really sees the floor," said PCHS head coach Cathy Kohnen. "It's a gift to use that peripheral vision to be able to find holes on the floor and to put the ball into that spot."

"They did pretty well at the net tonight. I still truly believe there are some things we need to work on, and we're going to work on those really hard in practice. We have an extremely tough game on Thursday night at Anna-Jonesboro, and Nashville next Tuesday, so we need to be ready to go."

Mayci Doerflien had a team-high 11 assists. Mady Epplin, Emma Banach and Kling each had 6 digs. Brooklyn Morrow chipped in with 3 service aces.

For Du Quoin, Jordyn Bullar and Alaina Caldwell each had 4 kills, Kenzie Jackson and Rylea McDonald both had 3. Taylor Gates led digs with 8, Caldwell led assists with 9.

"I was extremely happy with a lot of the things the girls did," said DHS head coach Jo Dill, "especially defensively. I really felt like, defensively, we frustrated their hitters a little bit. We were getting some blocks, digging some balls out that I don't think they expected us to dig. I credit my defense for playing their butts off."

The Lady Panthers (16-10) are at Anna-Jonesboro on Thursday in a battle for first place in the Southern Illinois River-to-River Conference Mississippi Division. Du Quoin (4-15) will be looking for their first conference win at home against Sparta on Thursday.