Volleyball Opens Monday, United Takes the Maple City Cup, and the Area’s Best Team Plays in Oneida
Football takes the Friday nights, but it is not the only thing happening — and it was not even the first local competition of the fall.
IHSA practice for volleyball, boys soccer and cross country opened Monday, August 10. Golf has already crowned a champion. And volleyball starts in earnest next week, with six area teams opening inside 48 hours.
Golf: United takes the Maple City Cup again
United 175, Monmouth-Roseville 255 at Gibson Woods on Monday, August 17 — the Red Storm’s second straight Maple City Cup.
Senior Lucas Horner was medalist with a 38. Gage Lancaster shot 45, with Colten Painter and Cohen Long each at 46. Liam Parker led Monmouth-Roseville with a 49, followed by Braden Schroeder at 56. The course was soggy from rain.
Monmouth-Roseville won the first three editions of the Cup; the 2025 match was rained out. The two schools are three miles apart.
Coming up: the Monmouth-Roseville 2A Invite is August 28, the United Open is September 1, and the M-R 1A Invite is September 4. IHSA regionals are September 29 for girls and September 30 for boys.
Volleyball: everybody opens next week
Six area programs open between Monday, August 24 and Tuesday, August 25.
| Team | 2025 | Opener |
|---|---|---|
| ROWVA/Williamsfield | 32-7, Lincoln Trail champions | Aug 24 at Brimfield, 5:00 |
| United | 16-20 | Aug 25 at West Prairie, 6:00 |
| Galesburg | 15-21 | Aug 25 at Morton, 5:00 |
| Knoxville | 15-20-1 | Aug 24 vs Rockridge, 6:00 |
| West Central | 14-14 | Aug 24 vs Bushnell-Prairie City, 7:00 |
| Monmouth-Roseville | 11-26 | Aug 24 vs Ridgewood, 7:00 |
| Abingdon-Avon | 6-29 | Aug 24 at Deer Creek-Mackinaw, 6:00 |
The team to beat is not the one you would guess
ROWVA/Williamsfield went 32-7 and won the Lincoln Trail Conference — comfortably the best record of any area program in any sport last year, and a season that got a fraction of the attention the football teams got. The Cougars are the story of the fall on this side of the coverage area, and we intend to treat them that way.
Monmouth-Roseville’s numbers problem
The Titans went 11-26 and 0-11 in the Three Rivers Conference last year, and the roster is thin going in. Principal Eric Matthews said in mid-August that varsity volleyball is down to eight or nine players.
Eight is enough to field a team and very little else. The counterweight: freshman, sophomore and junior-high participation at Mon-Rose is strong, which suggests a dip rather than a decline. Kristen Mynatt coaches.
Knoxville hosts Monmouth-Roseville on August 26 in the first area-versus-area match of the season.
Boys soccer: three programs, all opening the same week
- Galesburg opens at home Tuesday, August 25 vs Beardstown, 4:30 p.m., under Philip Redington. The Streaks went 7-12-2 last season.
- Monmouth-Roseville opens Tuesday, August 25 at Riverdale, 5:00 p.m., under Sebastiao Neto, then hosts Orion on August 26.
- Abingdon-Avon opens at home Wednesday, August 26 vs Beardstown, 5:00 p.m., under Sean Foster.
Knoxville, United, ROWVA/Williamsfield and West Central do not appear to field boys soccer. If that is wrong, tell us and we will add you.
Mark September 17: Abingdon-Avon at Galesburg, 4:30 p.m. IHSA state finals are November 5-7 in Hoffman Estates.
Cross country
Monmouth-Roseville, coached by Nicole Trego, opens at the Annawan-Wethersfield Invite on Tuesday, September 1.
The date to circle locally is Saturday, September 5, when Galesburg hosts the Silver Streak Invite at 9:00 a.m. IHSA regionals are Saturday, October 24.
We are still missing meet schedules for most area programs. If you coach or run for one, send yours and we will publish it.
What we still need
We would rather be honest about the gaps than paper over them. Still chasing:
- Cross country schedules and coaches for Galesburg, Knoxville, United, Abingdon-Avon, ROWVA/Williamsfield and West Central
- Galesburg’s girls swimming schedule, which is not posted anywhere public. West Central’s swim program is coached by Heather Hinshaw.
- Galesburg’s golf schedule
- IHSA regional and sectional dates for volleyball and swimming. We have confirmed volleyball state finals November 13-14 in Normal, but the earlier rounds are not published anywhere we can reach.
If you are a coach, athletic director, parent or athlete with any of this, send it over. We would rather have it from you than guess.
Why we cover all of it
The easy version of a local sports site is football in the fall, basketball in the winter, silence otherwise. We would rather not do that.
A 32-7 conference championship volleyball season should not be the thing nobody wrote about. Send us scores, send us results, send us a photo of your kid’s team. We will run it.
Schedules and records from MaxPreps, school athletic sites and local reporting, and subject to change. Corrections welcome and posted same day.
Reported and edited by C. Jackson Cowart, whose work has appeared in ESPN, Forbes and Front Office Sports.
Send us a score. Coaches, parents, scorekeepers, anyone in the bleachers — email [email protected]. We post scores as they come in.
Spotted an error? We correct mistakes the same day. See our editorial standards and corrections policy. Schedules and records via IHSA and MaxPreps; quotes attributed to the outlets that reported them.
