With a sweep at the Smoky Valley Triangular with Ellinwood and a total victory at the Centre Invitational, the Marion High School volleyball team bounced back from an 0-2 showing at the Hesston Triangular with Hillsboro Tuesday with seven straight victories.
After mowing through the competition and having three players named to the all-tournament team, the Warriors? season record stands at 10-4.
Marion pasted all the competitors in Pool B Saturday at Centre, trouncing Tescott (25-6, 25-15), White City (25-14, 25-12) and Little River (25-13, 25-16) without missing a beat. The Warriors hammered Herington (25-21, 25-9) and topped Little River for a second time (25-19, 25-21) to secure the title.
Julia Zeiner, Lindsay Hett and Whitney Gordon were named to the all-tournament team.
Smoky Valley?Marion scored nine consecutive points during Lindsay Hett?s serve in the first game against Ellinwood and went on to win the match 25-15, 25-14.
The Warriors faced down a much more experienced opponent in the host Vikings and came away with one of their most significant wins of the season. It went to three games (24-26, 25-13, 25-22).
Marion lost the first four points of the first game and trailed 8-12 when it started to slip away. Hitting consecutive spikes beyond the back line left the Warriors in a 7-point hole.
Where in the past, they might have crumbled, Marion pulled together and recovered their composure?and rallied to close the gap to 22-23 on back-to-back sideout kills by Hett.
Kathy Goering served Marion to a 23-23 tie, forcing a Smoky Valley timeout. The Vikings took three of the next four points, but were obviously disturbed by the feistiness of their opponent.
In Game 2, Marion turned a 4-4 tie into a 25-13 win. After Gordon gave Marion a 10-9 lead, Hett and Zeiner combined to make it 16-10. Gordon?s kills accounted for two of the last four points in the game.
To their credit, the Vikings bounced back by turning a 4-0 Warriors advantage into a 13-13 tie on the way to a 17-16 Vikings lead. But with kill by Hett and Zeiner, Marion retied the game at 19, 20 and 21 before breaking through with consecutive points. Kills by Zeiner and Gordon ended it.
Hesston?Kayley Heerey had nine of the Warriors 19 kills in a 22-25, 19-25 loss to Hesston Sept. 8. Hesston?s defense keyed on Julia Zeiner and limited her to one kill in the match.
Zeiner was more effective against Hillsboro, recording four kills out of nine attacks. But the Trojans prevailed 25-23, 25-14.
Coming?Marion played at Hoisington Tuesday and hosts its home tournament Saturday.
