Photo by Diane Cox

Jada Green

When the Alton Redbirds needed the Big Swing around the net this season, they turned to Jada Green.

They could count on the 5-foot-10 senior hitter supplying the powerful touch.

Green’s forceful play was a big reason the Redbirds started the season 13-2 and finished 21-13, giving them back-to-back 20-plus win season. They won a school-record 25 matches in 2014.

For Green’s efforts in spurring the Redbirds, she received the AdVantage News’ Volleyball Player of the Year award. Teammate Jordan Nolan earned the honor a year ago.

“Jada filled the role of both middle hitter and outside hitter and she was very successful at it,” AHS coach Stacey Ferguson said.

How successful?

Green established a career record for kills with 630 to break the old mark of 602 that Andrea McPike set in 2008. McPike still holds the single-season mark of 227 kills in 2008. Green amassed 221 kills the past season.

“I just missed it (single-season record) by six kills,” said Green, a second-team, all-Southwestern Conference selection.

When the Redbirds were percolating, Green seemed to be at her best in the front line.

“I thought I stepped up more this year when we had a relatively new team,” said the soft-spoken Green, an honors student. “I had to assume a leadership role this season and I was more of a vocal leader. I was like a role model or mentor.”

She knew her way around the court, Ferguson said. Green served as one of Alton’s most experienced player.

“She was a four-year varsity player,” Ferguson noted.

Green earned MVP honors in the Alton Invitational and was all-tournament for the Redbird Classic and the Ritenour Invitational in St. Louis.

While Green gave the Redbirds ample leadership, she did it in her own way. Mostly, she guided by example.

“I’m not a huge yeller — I’m more quiet and easygoing,” Green said. “But I do get intense once the ball is in the air and the game begins.

“I love to play volleyball. I’ve been playing it since the fifth grade.”

Her competitive volleyball days may be behind her, though. Green is planning to attend a four-year university — possibly Kentucky — and study foreign economics.

“I haven’t decided yet where I’m going to school. I want to step away from sports, though I still might play club volleyball in college,” she said. “I want to study abroad.”

Green indicated she might like to eventually become a career diplomat. She used those diplomatic skills when necessary during her stellar career with the Redbirds.

“One thing I learned from volleyball is that you might not agree with everyone that you play with, but you have to work well with others,” Green said. “You have to work with people.”

The Redbirds were sort of a work in progress when Green played for them as a freshman in 2012. Yet they have made tangible improvement, thanks mainly to those 46 victories over the past two seasons.

“I know that I’m leaving the program in good hands,” she said.

Green and Kailin Haug are the only seniors on the 11-player squad. Juniors Savannah Fisher, Annie Evans and Kassidy Funke, plus a good group of sophomores, could bolster the Birds next season.

Green pointed out, “The last two years, all of the girls on our team played with a lot of heart. We might not have been the tallest or most experienced team, but we really wanted to win.” 

 

 

 

 

 

GRANITE CITY – The Alton Redbirds had a chance to play another home match this year.

All the Redbirds had to do was to win the Class 4A Granite City Regional. A regional championship would qualify the Redbirds for the Springfield Sectional, where they would be playing the Belleville West Regional champion in the semifinals at Alton High on Nov. 3.

But the Redbirds will not be playing another home match. Their season ended on Monday with a 25-22, 20-25, 30-28 loss to the Chatham Glenwood Titans in a first-round match at Granite City’s Memorial Gymnasium.

“It was tough,” Alton senior Kailin Haug said. “We never played them and not a lot of teams in our conference have, so we didn’t know what to expect.”

Alton, the No. 7 seed, ended its season at 21-13-1. The Redbirds lost their last nine matches.

Alton had a 21-4 record after beating Granite City on Oct. 6. Then, the Redbirds lost to Mater Dei, went 0-4 in the Highland Round Robin Tournament and dropped conference games to O’Fallon, Edwardsville and Belleville West.

“It’s almost like this every year,” Alton senior Jada Green said. “The end of our schedule is a lot harder and lot tougher teams. We had a lot more conference games. So we knew in our heads that we were doing really good. But we haven’t faced our best teams yet. We didn’t know what to expect and we knew they were going to be good and we just try to play our hardest. Unfortunately, we did lose the last nine matches, but I think we played hard.”

The Titans, who were seeded ninth, improved to 13-18. They will play top-seeded O’Fallon at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the regional semifinals at O’Fallon.

“It was really exciting,” Glenwood coach Amanda O’Rourke said. “We have a pretty young team, so we’ve been building towards regionals this whole season and we were really believing that we can use our momentum from this past weekend. I thought we did a pretty good job of coming out fired up and not letting up.”

Quincy, which beat Granite City in two games in the other first-round match on Monday, plays Edwardsville in the other regional semifinals on Tuesday at O’Fallon. The regional semifinals were moved to O’Fallon because a band concert is scheduled for Tuesday at GCHS’s Memorial Gymnasium. The championship match will be played on Thursday at GCHS.

Glenwood also put an end to the high school volleyball careers of Green and Haug. Both seniors played with the Alton volleyball program all four years.

The Redbirds return three juniors, three sophomores and a freshman next year.

“We have a young team,” Haug said. “They got a lot of experience this year, so I think they’ll do great next year.”

In the first game, the Redbirds came back from a 10-8 deficit to take a 14-10 lead after sophomore Sydney Schmidt served five straight points. Alton never trailed the rest of the game.

In the second game, junior Savannah Fisher served back-to-back aces to give Alton a 10-8 lead. But the Titans rallied with a 10-3 run to take an 18-13 lead they didn’t relinquish.

Glenwood stormed to a 10-5 lead in the third game, but the Redbirds rallied to take a 25-24 lead. Alton was at match point three times in the third game, but couldn’t pull it off.

“I think we probably could have done better hadn’t we gotten down so far,” Green said. “We kind of dug ourselves a ditch and it was hard to come back out on top.”

Down 28-27, the Titans came back with a 3-0 run to win the game and match. Glenwood sophomore Makenzie Bray scored a kill on match point.

Haug said she was pleased with her team’s effort despite the three-game loss to Glenwood.

“I have to say that was probably one of the best games we played this season,” the Alton senior said. “It was a tough battle. We won the first set and we were pumped then. When they won the second set, they were pumped then. From there, we were just going at it and unfortunately, they came out on top.”