The last time Community’s Lady Iron met the Edwardsville Tigers in post-season play was Nov. 3, 2016. Five years ago to the day, Community defeated Edwardsville in two sets to win the Sectional Final.
Community has not faced the Tigers since.
Max Preps ranks the Tigers 10th in the state, taking into account the team’s strength of schedule and quality wins (against other highly ranked opponents).
Edwardsville played a schedule that included six matchups against top 10 teams. Community played three.
Edwardsville won one of those matches – defeating third-ranked Mater Dei in two sets Sept. 4, before losing the teams’ next two contests.
Community lost all three matches, falling to sixth-ranked Benet Academy in two sets Oct. 16 and to fifth-ranked Lyons in two on Sept. 10 and again Oct. 23.
In Community’s October match up with Lyons, the Lady Iron took the match to three sets.
Community and Edwardsville shared common opponents this season, both facing Belleville East, O’Fallon, Normal West, and Benet Academy.
Both teams defeated Belleville East and O’Fallon in two sets during the regular season.
Edwardsville defeated the West Wildcats 2-1 in the teams’ one regular-season contest. The Lady Iron fell to West in the Intercity tournament before defeating the Wildcats for the Big 12 Conference title.
Benet handed both Community and Edwardsville 2-0 defeats in tournament play this season.