VOLLEYBALL: Du Quoin ousted by Johnston City
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ In the first match of the Carterville Volleyball Regional, Number 4 seed, Johnston City, played Carterville, the number five seed and won fairly easily. The game scores were 25-18 and 25-16. That gave Johnston City the right to play the number one seed, DuQuoin, in the third match of the evening.
The starting lineup for DuQuoin was Kelsey Toler, Rebekah Maddox, Jessica Hirsch, Cassidy Rice (Libero), Keawna Anders, Jessica Martin, and Megi Jones. DuQuoin was called for four hits, and JC was called for being in the net to tie things up at 7-7. JC spiked a beauty down to go up 8-7. Toler was blocked by JC at 9-7. Anders spiked one on the back line, and Toler "boomed" one over and down to tie at 9-9.
After falling behind 13-10, DuQuoin called a time out. JC could not return a DuQuoin serve, and then hit the next one out for DuQuoin to move to 12-13. JC tipped over a DuQuoin double block, and then hit one on the back line to go up 15-12. From that point Johnston City moved away from DuQuoin. DuQuoin was never able to recover, falling 25-18.
The second game was very similar to the first. DuQuoin could never get into the flow of the game. DuQuoin served to start, and JC could not handle it. JC then spiked into the net for DuQuoin to go up 2-0. JC spiked for a point, and Maddox hit one into the net to go 2-2. JC served short to go up 3-2. DuQuoin was called for four hits, and another spike went into the net. Anders' tip was good, Maddox's spike was long, DuQuoin could not return a JC hit, and the score was now 7-3 JC. Ward hit a beautiful dig, and Maddox had a block before JC hit one into the net. Johnston City spiked a hard spike down to go 9-4. DuQuoin was called for an illegal hit, and JC served long to go up 10-5.
At 13-6, Toler spiked a mammoth spike on the back line. At 16-11 JC called a time out. Johnston City continued to score on hard hit spikes and DuQuoin errors to win the game 25-14.
The statistics for DuQuoin were : Rice led in digs with 9, followed by Hirsch with 8, Jones 7, Anders 6, Ward 5, and Toler 4. Toler led in kills with 6, Anders had 3, Maddox 2, and Hirsch 2. Jones led in assists with 8 and Toler led in service points with 5 (2 aces).
DuQuoin ended the season with a great record of 25-9. Coach Isaac Miller said, "Johnston City showed up to play, and DuQuoin did not. Tonight was not our night, but it doesn't take away from our great season. I am proud of our girls. Twenty-five wins is nothing to hang our heads about. We just didn't finish the season the way we wanted to."