EDWARDSVILLE - Every time O'Fallon and Edwardsville collide in girls' volleyball, it is a competitive match, year in and year out.
It was a very entertaining match on Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025, indeed, and afterwards, O'Fallon head coach Natalie Best was very happy with the outcome.
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O'Fallon rebounded in the third set to stop an Edwardsville rally, and give Edwardsville its first Southwestern Conference loss 25-23, 20-25, 25-18 at EHS.
"It was a lot of fun," Best said. "These girls came out, did their job. They played together as a team; that was a big focus. We were down after Saturday, we had a really rough tournament on Saturday (the Belleville East Invitational), and to just see these girls respond how they did, work together, and battle, was just fantastic. It was a lot of fun. It's good volleyball."
The win and the momentum from being able to come back from a tough tournament showing at East will give O'Fallon a big momentum boost for the stretch run of the season.
Best added that now the Southwestern Conference volleyball race is "wide open."
"Our conference is incredibly tough, so it could go any way out of this," she said. "But this will be a big momentum swing for us, I think, in finishing out the season. We've got conference games left, we've got one more tournament, and then, postseason. So I think this is a game we're going to go back and reflect on, and continue to use in our gym as motivation. The Southwestern Conference is wide open, so we'll see how it goes."
The rest of the season is something that Best is already looking ahead to.
"It should be a lot of fun," Best said, "especially with a win like this, a team effort like this. We actually had a big injury yesterday in our gym, so a couple of girls had to step up who aren't typically in those roles, so it was a really good team effort."
To see such a team effort is very satisfying for Best herself to see.
"It was very fun to see a team effort, yes, absolutely," Best said. "Just looking forward to finishing out, I'm really proud of this group, and like I said, we'll continue to use this as motivation in our gym moving forward."
The Panthers are now 14-11, and next play at Alton Thursday at 5:45 p.m. The team starts its final tournament against Columbia at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, and are at Belleville Althoff Catholic next Wednesday, Oct. 15, at 6:45 p.m.
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
