Sports editor
With a victory against Sterling Saturday in the Hillsboro tournament, the Marion High School volleyball team was 1-4 on the week and is now 12-19 on the season.
The Warriors have just one event left before Saturday’s sub-state at Remington.
They played Tuesday in the Haven quad, but results were not available before press time.
This past week MHS lost to Hoisington and Nickerson Oct. 14 at the Halstead quad, and Hillsboro and Hoisington Saturday at the Hillsboro tournament, before finally beating Sterling.
In three of the four losses during the week, Marion won the first game before dropping the final two and taking a loss.
“We talked about what we have to do to get over that last hump,” MHS head coach Jim Versch said. “We talked a lot about that.”
Versch said the players recognize they can beat some of the teams they are losing to, and decided everyone needed to be more upbeat no matter what was happening during a match.
The players decided everyone, including those on the bench, needed to be upbeat during matches, and everyone needed to encourage their teammates, especially when they are down.
Versch said the players want to improve.
“They are highly competitive girls,” he said.
They proved that after beating Hoisington (twice) and Nickerson in the first game of their respective matches this past week.
Against Hoisington Oct. 14 Julia Zeiner had 17 kills in the three-game match, to go along with five aces and eight digs.
She was the team leader against Nickerson as well with 12 kills, while Kayley Heerey added eight.
The duo led MHS to a 25-20 victory before losing 25-17, 25-16 in games two and three.
At Hillsboro Saturday it was more of the same, as the Warriors jumped out with a 25-17 victory against Hoisington in opening-round play.
It was Zeiner again leading the way with 10 kills in the match and a .556 hitting percentage.
Chassidy Carlson helped her teammates attack the net with 11 assists during the match.
Despite the good stats, the Cardinals came back to defeat Marion 25-12, 25-11 to win the match.
“The first game against Hoisington was fun, they had smiles on their faces,” Versch said.
After that, they were flat, something Versch does not want to see.
“I want them to play loose — have fun,” he said.
It wasn’t much fun in the match against Hillsboro, as the Trojans knocked off Marion 25-13, 25-21.
Zeiner had five kills, Heerey four, and Whitney Gordon and Lindsay Hett chipped in with three.
Determined not to go winless on the week, Marion came out loose against Sterling and dominated the Black Bears, 25-13, 25-11.
Zeiner had zero attack errors in the match, and converted six kills on seven attempts.
Heerey had five kills and two solo blocks, and Carlson led again with seven assists.
Now the focus turns to the Haven quad and sub-state.
If the Warriors can win all three matches at Haven, they would enter Saturday’s sub-state play at Remington with a 15-19 record.
Versch is thinking his team will probably enter the tournament as the fourth or fifth seed.
Four other MCAA schools, Halstead, Hillsboro, Lyons, and Sterling, will be at the meet, along with Remington, Sedgwick, and Hutch Trinity.
Versch said they have talked about sub-state, and their goal is to win all three matches to advance to state.
Versch talked about his 1992 2A championship team that entered state play with a record barely better than .500 and knocked off an undefeated team in the first round.
“‘Giant Killers,’ was the headline then I think,” Versch said with a laugh.
No matter what happens, Versch said he has enjoyed the 2008 season.
“They just keep working hard,” he said. “They are a fun group of girls to be around.”