With a win over Kewanee, the Lady Panthers would earn at least a tie for the title and with a Princeton loss they could win it outright.
After a disappointing showing on Monday in a straight set loss to Morrison, the Lady Panthers regained their winning form on Tuesday and swept Kewanee on the road after falling to the Lady Boilers at home in late September in three very close sets. The title dominos continued to fall in EP’s favor during the evening as Newman took down Princeton in straight sets to give the Lady Panthers the conference title.
EP picked up the win in the all important first set. The Lady Boilers started well getting out to 4-1 lead. The Lady Panthers put together a short 3-0 run with a Wynn Renkes ace making it 7-6 Kewanee. A 3-0 run by the Lady Boilers made it 11-8. A kill by EP’s Alaina Frank tied the set at 11 but Kewanee responded to climb to a 4-point advantage forcing EP to call time, trailing 15-11. Following the break, the Lady Panthers found their offense, going on a 9-0 run on the strength of great net play by Kayler Pritchard, Zoey Stuart and Frank to take a 21-16 lead. EP went on to get the set win 25-18.
EP continued their strong play on both sides of the net in the second set as Kewanee was unable counter the Lady Panther’s front line and consistent serving, preventing the Lady Boilers from getting into their offense.
With EP up 5-4, Alaina Frank simply dominated at the net as she consistently drove spikes into the Kewanee defense who simply could not return her cannon shots. “She was pretty unstoppable tonight!” said EP coach Rachel Bramm. ” Her presence and impact on the court is definitely undeniable. Alaina is a great kid and one of those quiet leaders who can catalyze our team performance when she has big games like she did tonight!”
After a Kewanee timeout and leading 10-5, EP continued to play extremely well and grew their advantage to 8 at 20-12. A second Lady Boiler timeout did little to change the inevitable as Frank and Pritchard continued to hammer away leading to a 25-17 set and match win.
Bramm was happy to see her squad bounce back with a win. “After a couple of recent tough losses, tonight was exactly what we needed in order to propel ourselves into post season. The girls were firing on all cylinders to finish our regular season play in commanding fashion. Not only was tonight a great victory, but it secured our position as TRAC East champions, which is a testament to the girls’ hard work and determination all season long. We’ve got a week before we open up our post-season campaign against Byron in the Regional semifinals, and if we play the way that we did tonight, we’re going to be a really difficult team to beat.”
The freshmen and JV squads also won in straight sets with JV winning the conference title.
The Lady Panthers end the regular season with a 19-9-2 record and will begin postseason play on Tuesday in Byron against the host school at 7PM.
EP Stats
Frank – 11 kills
Pritchard – 6 kills, 5 blocks
Ava Johnson – 5 kills
Stuart – 5 kills
Emma Anderson – 8 digs, 1 ace
Lia Milem – 24 assists
