East Peoria Lady Raiders Snap 52 Game Conference Losing Streak

The East Peoria Lady Raiders finally did it! East Peoria beat Dunlap 47-41 and snapped a 52 game conference losing streak. The last time East Peoria won a conference game was on February 16th, 2021 which was the covid shortened season. Before that, they won a regular season conference game in 2016.

Leading the Raiders was senior Kylie Moeller who scored 17 points in the win. The McKendree commit has played a huge factor in East Peoria's success. East Peoria is now 8-5 and have already matched last seasons win total.

Your team just won a conference game against Dunlap. What’s the feeling like of finally winning a conference game? “It feels amazing. There really aren’t any words to describe the feeling after never winning a conference game before in my career, so it’s just super exciting and rewarding knowing my teammates and I worked for this!”

You’ve won 8 games already this season. Last season you won 8 games. How does the team build on the success that you have all had so far this season? “We all have to work hard in practice to continue to get better. We also need to have the confidence that we are a better team than we have been in previous years and to never settle with what we have achieved so far as a team.”

East Peoria has improved so much this season compared to last year. Last season East Peoria finished with a record of 8-24 and went 0-14 in conference play. This season they have a record of 8-5 and they are 1-2 in conference play.

Your schedule only gets harder from this point on. How does a team stay focused when you have to prepare for state ranked teams that are in your conference like Washington and Morton? “We have to not give up during the games and not let a single game dictate the rest of our season.”

I asked Kylie if there was anything else she wants to accomplish with this East Peoria team before the season ends and complete her high school career. “I obviously would love to win as many games as possible this season to continue to leave a mark, but a big goal for this team to accomplish is to make it farther in the postseason!”

The East Peoria Lady Raiders have shown improvement. Now they look to push forward and embrace the challenge of playing in the Mid Illini Conference.