Staff writer
The Lady Warriors triumphed over Hesston for the first time in Jim Versch’s 18-year career coaching high school volleyball.
And they didn’t just win; it was a dominating performance in straight sets.
“They were a dynasty for a while,” Versch said. “But they have had some down years lately.”
Julia Zeiner was the difference-maker for the Warriors against the Swathers and Wichita Collegiate later on in the night. The power hitter controlled the net for Marion, sending thundering, finger-breaking spikes bouncing through enemy territory. Anytime that Zeiner was able to reach the apex of her jump she was going to get a kill.
“She has such great hang time,” Versch said. “She’s like Michael Jordan going to the basket.”
While Marion saw great success against Hesston and seemingly had the momentum for the night, they ran into an immovable wall against Wichita Collegiate. The Warriors lost in two very close sets to the Spartans.
Versch said that the quickness of the Spartan front line made it difficult to defend their set plays.
“Sadie Clark and Ashia Woods — they’re so quick.” he said. “We kind of knew when they were going to the quick play but we couldn’t stop them.”
Versch said that even though Marion defeated Hesston there was not a lot of communication between his players in the early contest and it affected their play against Wichita Collegiate.
“I can always see it on my girls’ faces,” he said. “They don’t smile.”
All of that being established, Versch was excited about the way his team played. He feels his team is getting better while the Spartans have already peaked. He cited the Warriors game against Wichita Collegiate in the preseason and said that the Spartans are no better now than they were then. He also said that, because a perfect season is impossible, wins only matter for seeding purposes.
“Truth is, I would have loved to win tonight, but if we had won we’d have nothing to shoot for,” he said. “I’d love to play Collegiate every night; we get one more time late in the season.”
Warriors take second
The Warriors volleyball team came in second at the Marion invitational tournament Saturday.
The Warriors defeated Canton Galva, Halstead, and Eureka in straight sets to win their pool and enter the winning bracket.
In the semifinals, Marion beat Sedgwick 25-17, 26-28, and 25-19 in one of the few matches of the tournament that went three sets.
“(We got) great play from Julia Zeiner, Kayley Heerey, Whitney Gordon and setters Lindsay Hett and Chassidy Carlson,” Marion head coach Jim Versch said of the victory.
The Warriors then went on to play Wichita Collegiate in the finals and were finally vanquished by a team ranked No. 1 in class 3A, 25-15 and 25-17.
“We were a bit wore out by the end of the day, and WC being 16-0 and first in 3A rankings are a very strong team with some great players,” Versch said. “Stats wise we were about half what we accomplished in all stats compared to the other four matches. Kills were half, digs half and aces half.”