Lady Pats juke Jonesboro

Lady Pats juke Jonesboro

Marion wins 27th straight home match

Sports Editor

For nearly two sets last night at Lady Patriot Volleyball Gym, Jonesboro looked to be the team defending a state title.

The Lady Hurricane seemed to be just a step quicker than the hosts from Marion, and threatened to win the first two sets of the match in what amounted to a key 6A/5A-East contest.

Instead, Marion found its bearings in that fateful second set, and hit another gear in the third and fourth sets to drop Jonesboro for the sixth straight time, moving to 14-1 overall and 7-1 in the league. The scores were 22-25, 28-26, 25-16 and 25-16.

“Anytime you can beat a team like Jonesboro with all of the tradition and with it being a conference game, it’s a big win,” said Marion head coach Lisa Beasley of her opponents, who have won 11 state titles in their school’s history, most recently in 2013. “I did think that they were playing harder than us point-for-point those first two sets, but I always tell them to just do what we do. If we do what we do, then we’re tough to beat, and I think that we got back to that later on.”

It would be difficult to argue with Beasley’s blunt assessment early on as it was Jonesboro who scored seven straight points at an early juncture to claim a 15-12 lead.

That three-point lead grew to 20-15, which forced a Marion timeout and quickly thereafter, the Lady Pats ripped off three straight points to move within 2322. That stretch was highlighted by Ally Bramucci kills off of sets by Gabi Catt on back-to-back plays. However, Jonesboro took advantage of key errors by Marion for the last two points to claim the 25-22 win, the first loss in a set by the Lady Pats at home all season long.

The second set was just as close as the first one.

Neither team was able to score more than three consecutive points until Jonesboro did so to tie the game at 18-all later in set number two.

Following a kill from Sarah Burford and an ace from Bramucci, Jonesboro burnt a timeout, only to see Marion push its lead to four points following an error and a kill by Annalee Parker.

But the visitors had another response, scoring four points consecutively to knot the game up at 23-all, to set up a wild dash for the finish line.

The game eventually got evened at 24, 25 and 26 before Marion scored the last two points of the game on a Parker kill and an error to claim a 28-26 win to even the match.

“Our gears just weren’t clicking early on,” said senior Hope Phipps, who posted 22 digs, in addition to four aces. “Something was off, but once we figured it out, we looked like a 6A state championship team.”

“We still made a bunch of errors, way too many of them,” Beasley said. “I told them that they were going to be pulled back, playing defense against us like everyone else that we play. Right over the block, rolled shot, tip or whatever will be open. I told them to use it some to make them be legit and once we did that, then we got it going a little bit.”

Beasley’s strategy session paid off in the third and fourth sets, as Marion bolted out to a 6-2 lead after three Parker kills in four scores. The senior Murray State commit led Marion with 22 kills, while also getting to 13 digs. Parker’s run gave way to one by classmate Sara Betts, who also had a hat trick of kills for a 13-9 Marion lead. Betts, an Arkansas State commit, posted 13 kills, had six digs and served an ace.

Marion’s offense got them the lead, and then it was their defense that saved it as Catt came up with three blocks at the net down the stretch and Marion took the third set 25-16. Catt had a double-double of sorts with 16 assists, 13 digs in addition to five kills.

Jonesboro led 7-4 early in the fourth set, but a Parker kill, assisted by Bramucci put Marion ahead 8-7.

Bramucci handed out a team-leading 29 assists, posted 9 kills and got to 7 digs.

Marion still led by a point when Parker came up with kills on three straight attempts for a 14-10 lead that forced a Jonesboro timeout.

Jonesboro had cut the lead to 15-14 when a Sarah Burford (team-high 29 digs, 5 kills and 2 assists) kill earned her team the serve back, which put the ball in the hands of Phipps, one of the team’s better servers.

The senior handed out aces on three straight points to send the partisan crowd at the gym into a frenzy, and forced Jonesboro to burn a timeout with Marion ahead 20-14.

Bramucci and Betts would team up for a block, Betts would post three kills and a Parker kill clinched the win for Marion, that elicited a wild celebration of Phipps fist pumps and Burford slapping the floor.

It was Marion’s 27th consecutive home victory.

Marion finishes its first round of league play on Thursday when they travel to play Nettleton.

By Chuck Livingston