Collinsville Rallies to Earn Three-Game Victory Over Visiting Bellville West
The Collinsville girls volleyball team honored the Class of 2013 on Thursday, but some of the seniors’ younger teammates also played key roles in a memorable victory for the Kahoks.
Collinsville rallied from a six-point deficit in Game 2 to post a 22-25, 25-21, 25-14 win over visiting Belleville West on Senior Night. Middle hitter Cathy Schreiber, a 6-foot-3 junior, was among the standouts for the Kahoks.
“I didn’t want to lose this last game at home, for the seniors or for myself,” Schreiber said. “We’re capable of going far this year, and if we play like we did tonight, I think we will.”
The win boosted Collinsville’s record to 16-7 overall and 5-2 in the Southwestern Conference.
“This team has great skills and great intensity, but I don’t know if they always have confidence,” Kahoks coach Tracy Plagemann said. “In the second game, they said ‘we can do this’ and they started to believe in themselves. When they play like that, it’s really wonderful to see.”
The first game was a back-and-forth affair, with West going ahead 16-11 on an ace serve by Toni Fields. A kill by Cami Davis gave Collinsville its first lead at 18-17, but West went back in front 23-21 after the Kahoks’ Meg Votopaul hit the ball out of bounds.
Collinsville won the next point when a serve by West’s Taylor Puuri went wide, but the Maroons took a 24-22 lead when the Kahoks let the ball drop on the left side of the front row. West closed out the game on a kill by Fields.
In Game 2, West went up 8-4 on a ace by Sarah Owens. The Maroons appeared to be in control when a kill by Sara Stevenson made the score 18-12, but Collinsville wasn’t finished.
Behind the serving of senior Sam Stephens, the Kahoks scored the next 12 points to take a 24-18 lead. West won the next three points to stay alive, but Collinsville won the game on a kill by Sarah Rendleman.
“Sam rarely gets rattled and she’s one of those players you want at the line on game point,” Plagemann said of Stephens. “She’s not a flashy kid, but she does her job and she does it well.”
“We all came together to help each other out,” Stephens said. “We started talking and that made a big difference.”
Schreiber got on a roll during the Kahoks’ run. Her block and a kill on back-to-back points turned a tie game into a 20-18 Collinsville lead.
“Cathy has grown as a player this season,” Plagemann said. “At the beginning of the year, she was still kind of hesitant, but she’s starting to become the kind of player that her teammates can look to for big points and big plays.”
It was a frustrating loss for West, which dropped to 16-12 and 3-2.
“During that 12-point run, we weren’t making a whole lot of mistakes,” Maroons coach Austin Betz said. “They were playing great volleyball and they were forcing us out of our system.
“Cathy Schreiber had three or four blocks during that stretch and even when she wasn’t blocking it, she was forcing our hitters to do things they didn’t want to do. No. 6 (Kristen Ruffcorn) had a bunch of kills, too, and she had a great game.”
Collinsville’s momentum carried over to Game 3, as a block by Katie McCarthy gave the Kahoks a 10-6 lead. A kill by Schreiber made the score 20-12.
A kill by Ruffcorn boosted Collinsville’s lead to 23-14. The Kahoks won the next two points and the match when West hit the ball out of bounds.