Lady Jackets finish 14th at Fairfield Tournament
By Jim Beers, Contributing Writer
CHESTER – The Chester High School Lady Jacket Volleyball Team opened the 2022 season with a sweep of all three Anna-Jonesboro High School Lady Wildcats teams.
The freshmen squad features 12 newcomers to the Lady Jacket Volleyball program including Callie Davis, Lillian Diskey, Riley Lochhead, Lexi Mott, Aubrey Coleman, Camryn Wolff, Erin Liefer, Jessica Stumpe, Rylie Conley, Olivia Earl, Sadie Sellers and Maggie Caby.
The JV squad includes nine including ladies Camryn Wolff, Erin Liefer, Elaina Lutman, Gianna Eggemeyer, Jazzi Merideth, Libby McCormick, Kinsli McCartney, Alexis Eggemeyer, and Grace Welborn.
The Varsity squad features 10 players including Maggie Caby, Elaina Lutman, Mabry Wingerter, Alexis Eggemeyer, Jordan Buskhol, Ellen McCormick, Paige Vasquez, Emma Eggemeyer, Maleia Absher, and Paige Thomas.
The Freshmen Team beat the AJ Freshmen in two sets, 21-10 and 21-15. The Junior Varsity Team beat the AJ JV in two sets, 25-10 and 25-3. The Chester Varsity Team beat the Lady Wildcats in two sets, 25-11 and 25-6.
Varsity Match
The Varsity won the first set, 25-11 in a somewhat competitive contest, but the second and match-winning set was pretty much all CHS. Junior Mabry Wingerter started the set serving a 9-0 run which got the Lady Jackets off to a great and confident beginning.
Chester Lady Jacket Volleyball players Jordan Buskhol (#9), Mabry Wingerter (#3) and Maleia Absher (#2) discuss the previous score at the opening match of the season when the Jackets swept Anna-Jonesboro at all three levels, freshmen, JV, and varsity, in two sets each match.
Jim Beers Photo
Alexis Eggemeyer, another junior, then followed with a 6-0- run to give Chester a 20-6 lead, after which junior Ellen McCormick finished of the Lady Wildcats with another 6-0 run to win the set and the match, 25-6.
Chester High School junior, Mabry Wingerter (#3) serves to Anna-Jonesboro Thursday August 25 when the Jackets hosted the Lady Wildcats to open the 2022 season. Wingerter started the second set serving a 9-0 run against AJ to help lead her team to a 25-11 and 25-6 sweep of Anna-Jonesboro. In the win Wingerter recorded 2 aces, 1 kill, 3 block assists and led the team in digs with 6. Jim Beers Photo
In the win Mabry Wingerter recorded 2 aces, 1 kill, 3 block assists and she led the team in digs with 6. Alexis Eggemeyer stepped up with 5 aces, 1 kill and 1 assist. Senior Paige Vasquez recorded 5 digs and Maggie Caby, a freshman, added 1 ace, 2 kills, 2 assists and 3 block assists.
Junior Jordan Buskhol had 3 kills and Emma Eggemeyer added 4 digs and 1 assist. Finally, Maleia Absher contributed 2 block assists and 1 dig in the win. With the win, all three Chester squads opened the season with 1-0 records.
Fairfield Volleyball Tournament
The Fairfield Tournament was a one-day affair on Saturday August 27. Chester faced five fairly good teams including Lawrenceville, Mt. Vernon, Fairfield, Teutopolis, and North Clay.
The Lady Jackets beat Lawrenceville, but fell to Mt. Vernon, Fairfield, Teutopolis, and North Clay for 1-4 tournament record.
CHS Head Coach Colleen Runge said, “We ended up placing 12th-of-16 teams at Fairfield. We were missing four of our starters that day and basically had to play with our JV team the entire tournament.”
“Even with that handicap, we still went to three sets with each of the five teams we played throughout the tournament.”
With the unfortunate circumstances surrounding the player unavailability at Fairfield, the Lady Jackets still made a pretty good showing and won one match. Competition was tough and it was only the first week of the 2022 season.
Considering CHS had five starters missing, the younger girls stood tall and played well against five varsity squads. With the losses, the Lady Jackets ended Week 1 with a record of 2-4.
Week 2: Marisa Labor Day Tournament
The entire week of August 29-September 1 was supposed to be the 2022 Marissa Labor Day Tournament. Due to unforeseen schedule changes in the dates of the event, the Chester High School Lady Jackets were forced to withdraw from the tournament.
The Jackets practiced all week, but saw no competition. The season record remained at 2 wins and 4 losses after Week 2.
Week 3: Upcoming Schedule
Week 3 will bring two home matches. Chester will host Carlyle Tuesday September 6 at CHS Colbert Gym followed by a second home match Thursday September 8 when the Lady Jackets host Red Bud. Both contests will be the start of Cahokia Conference Illinois Division play.