Staff writer
The Marion volleyball team handled Lyons and Haven easily Tuesday for senior night.
The Warriors gained the momentum in their first match against Lyons by consistently putting serves together.
At one point, junior Chassidy Carlson served the ball 10 times in a row to take a commanding lead in the first game.
“Our serve was pretty on tonight,” Carlson said.
Marion defeated Lyons, 25-15, in the first game and was able to hold off a rally in the second game to win, 25-20.
Because they were on a roll, the Warriors were able to land a few “killer” serves as well.
Marion head coach Jim Versch teaches his players two types of serves: “must” serves and “killer” serves. A killer serve is most often a jumping serve that, when executed properly, rockets the ball to an opponent’s backline. A well-placed killer serve is often an ace but always takes a team out of their offense. For Marion, killer serves are only used when the Warriors have a lead.
Senior Kayley Heerey had her killer serve working. During both matches, she would look over to Versch for a signal to go to her power serve, and he nodded for her to go for it. Heerey’s serving was part of an all-around impressive night for her: she played strong in the middle of the floor, getting blocks, and she committed few mistakes.
Both Heerey and Carlson said that the Warriors have tirelessly worked on serving in practice. The team works on both types of serves but when a player misses a must serve, or a serve that is designed just to get over the net, they have to run a high road — up the stairs in the arena and around the track at the top.
Carlson learned the lesson. In practice, she missed five must serves, but during the game she was the surest of Marion servers.
The Warriors were working on all cylinders and dominated Haven in their second match 25-14 and 25-9. Versch was impressed by the second game in particular. He said he was encouraged by the fact that the Warriors stayed aggressively and put the Panthers away.
“We played Marion volleyball,” he said. “We didn’t play to their level.”
Marion will play in the Hillsboro tournament on Saturday and against the No. 1 team in 3A, Wichita Collegiate, Tuesday.