ORIGINALLY WRITTEN BY : TOM STOPPEL
The Marion Warriors prepared for the sub-state volleyball tournament on Saturday with a quadrangular at Nickerson last Tuesday.
Marion returned home with a 1-2 record for the day with losses to Nickerson and Haven and a win over Wichita Collegiate.
The Warriors dropped their opener to Nickerson, 25-21, 26-24.
“We came out really flat against Nickerson,” coach Kara Chisholm said. “We missed a lot of serves and I don’t think we were as prepared for them as we needed to be.”
Erin Richmond led the Warriors with 12 assists and Megan Hudson and Erin Carr each registered five kills.
Marion made only 83 percent of its serves (31-46) with seven service aces. Toni Gordon and Richmond each had two.
On defense, Marion recorded 18 digs. Carr led with five and Allison Maddox had four.
At the net, Marion had 17 blocks-including seven each from Kari Tajchman and Gordon.
In the second match, Marion lost to Haven, 25-23, 13-25, 31-33.
“We played really well in this match and took them to three games,” Chisholm said. “We were evenly matched but just couldn’t pull it out in the end.”
Richmond recorded 21 assists in 64 sets. As a team, Marion put down 29 kills. Gordon and Hudson each had eight and Carr six.
Marion made 88 percent of its serves with seven aces. Gordon, Emalee Versch and Carr each had two.
On defense, Marion had 66 digs, including 16 by Carr, 14 by Maddox and 11 by Hudson.
At the net, the Warriors blocked 25 hits, with Gordon accounting for 13.
In the final match, Marion defeated a much-improved Collegiate team, 25-20, 25-21.
“The loss to Haven almost gave us some momentum,” Chisholm said. “A big part of it, though, was that we had the mindset that we could beat (Collegiate), so we did beat them.
“Collegiate is down somewhat this year, but they had two of their players back that hadn’t played before and they were pretty good. They gave us a game.”
Fueling the offense was Richmond with nine assists in 33 sets.
Marion recorded 19 kills. Carr led with five while Gordon and Hudson each added four.
Marion was successful on only 76 percent of its serves.
The Warriors made 24 digs, including nine by Carr and five each from Hudson and Maddox.
Chisholm said this year’s edition of Warrior volleyball is unique in that it doesn’t feature one dominant player.
“We’re either all there or none of us are there,” Chisholm said. “That’s nice in that others can’t prepare for just one person. But at the same time, other teams know that, too.
“If we’re off we’re off and we don’t seem to have that one person who can step up and bring us back into a match.”
