Marion volleyball claims second place at Centre Invitational

MHSVBvsBereanKateyEhrlichWhitneyGordon571

MHSVBvsBereanKateyEhrlichWhitneyGordon571

If music is all about finding the right rhythm, the Warriors sounded beautiful Saturday on the way to a second-place finish at the Centre Invitational.

?This tournament for us is always a confidence booster,? coach Jim Versch said. ?Even if we take second place, we?re picking up some wins there. That?s always good.?

The Warriors started pool play with a 25-14, 25-12 win over Hope, then defeated White City 25-17, 25-6.

Marion then faced its first test of the day against Berean Academy, and eventually prevailed 25-19, 13-25, 25-21.

?We started off well against Berean,? Versch said. ?After the first eight points I was a little worried, because we weren?t playing at the level we had the first few matches. We just needed to pick it up, and they did. I was proud of them for doing that.

?The second game we came out just totally flat,? Versch said. ?I did have some seniors who helped step it up a bit.

The Warriors showed resilience in the third game.

?Even if we would have lost that match, I was happy we competed in that third game,? Versch said. ?That might be a deciding game for us the rest of the year.?

MHS moved into bracket play, where they defeated Little River in the semifinals 25-19, 25-22.

?(Little?River was) much weaker than they have been in years past,? Versch said. ?The second game we came out very uninspired and lacking any intensity. We were never behind, but it went point by point.?

As fate would have it, the Warriors faced Berean in the finals. This time Berean prevailed, 25-14, 26-24.

?We played the first game of finals with the same lack of intensity as the last semi game,? Versch said. ?I don?t know if we were worn out or didn?t really want to play Berean again.?

Whitney Gordon had 11 kills in the championship match.

?We were happy with a second place finish, but we all knew we should have had first place,? Versch said. ?I think if we would have made the serve and won the game, we would have won the match.

Versch said going from an 0-5 record the first week to 5-7 is a great accomplishment.

Berean Triangular?The Warriors split a pair of matches last Tuesday at Berean.

Marion struggled early in the triangular, losing to Sedgwick 20-25, 18-25. Whitney Gordon had just five kills in both sets, with fellow senior Annie Whitaker contributing four.

But Marion found its rhythm against league leader Berean, claiming a 25-16, 25-20 victory.

Coming?Marion was scheduled to compete at Bennington Sept. 13, and will host the Marion Invitational on Saturday.

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