St. Vincent volleyball holds off Perryville in five-set thriller

The St. Vincent Lady Indians continued to gear up for next week’s Class 2 District 2 tournament with an emphatic 3-2 victory over cross-town rival Perryville on Tuesday night at the Perry Park Center.

The Lady Indians improved to 17-8-5 overall — their best record since 2015 — with the 25-20, 22-25, 22-25, 25-18, 15-8 come-from-behind win, defeating Perryville for just the second time in the previous 12 meetings.

“What I liked is, especially in the last two sets, we scrambled and scored points off of the scramble,” head coach Darren Verseman said. “I mean, we had front-row players that were digging stuff out of the net, keeping balls alive, laying out, and stuff like that. And that's a big deal. Really made the difference.”

The Lady Indians were locked in a close first set as the home Lady Pirates continued to press their backline. Perryville held a slim 20-19 lead, but St. Vincent ripped off a 6-0 run that was capped off with a Kate Rubel kill to surge to a 25-20 win.

In the second set, St. Vincent managed to keep Perryville out of the lead before the Lady Pirates went on a pivotal run to climb in front 9-8, which forced the Lady Indians to call a timeout to regroup. The break did not stunt Perryville’s momentum, however, as head coach Elizabeth Meyr’s squad spread the lead to five at 15-10 on a kill by Lydia Schlimpert. Tied at 22-22, Perryville closed the door with a 3-0 run that was capped off with an Allyson Burns kill to claim the set 25-22.

Set 3 was nearly a foil of the second, as both teams were neck and neck and deadlocked at 15-15 before Perryville pulled ahead 20-17, forcing Verseman to burn a timeout. The Lady Pirates let the Lady Indians shrink the margin after tying things at 22-22 behind several costly Perryville errors. That’s until Perryville went on a 3-0 run behind a Ellie Gerler block and an Emma Blechle ace that gave the Lady Pirates another 25-22 win.

In the fourth set, the two teams swung away toe-to-toe with neither side able to maintain a lead of more than two points. St. Vincent had a narrow 10-8 lead before junior Brie Rubel swatted a fastball past the Perryville frontline for a point, which induced a Lady Pirates timeout. Perryville countered with a 4-0 run of its own to cut the deficit to 16-13. The teams continued to trade points until St. Vincent junior middle hitter Alaina Cates scored the winning point after firing a kill off the center floor for the 25-18 win.

In the fifth and final set, St. Vincent jumped out to a comfortable 12-7 advantage within the blink of an eye. The Lady Indians kept their foot on the gas as a Perryville service error and several hitting miscues handed the visitors a 15-8 victory.

After the game, Verseman said he was not surprised about his team’s ability to come back from down one set to two and pull off the victory.

“We've had a few of those this year, either coming from behind in a set or coming from behind in a match,” Verseman said. “And they just seem like, ‘okay, here we come.’ They've got it. I mean, I didn't give it to them, they've just got it. They're not going to let each other down, and that's sports, right? You’ve got to play for the people around you.”

The St. Vincent’s next test marks its final regular season matchup of the 2024 campaign, as the team travels south for a 7 p.m. match against Leopold tomorrow, Oct. 16. Perryville will host Festus at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 17 before closing out the regular season with a home match against Dexter next Monday, Oct. 21.