Marion alive after five

Marion alive after five

Lady Pats escape Nettleton with key league win

Sports Editor JONESBORO — It’s often said that volleyball is a game of momentum.

One would need to look no further than last night’s 6A/5A-East match between Marion and Nettleton for confirmation of that notion.

Through two full sets, and nearly half of the third, the game – and the momentum – rested with Marion.

The Lady Pats led the match 2-0 and enjoyed an 11-3 advantage in what could have been the deciding set.

Instead, Nettleton rallied to steal that third set, 2624, as well as the fourth frame, 29-27, to set up a one-set, winner-take-all sprint to 15 points, claimed by the visiting Lady Pats, 15-8, as Marion moved to 15-1 overall and finished 8-1 through its first trip through the league rotation.

Afterward, Marion head coach Lisa Beasley may have been more relieved than anything.

“Sure, it’s always good to get a win, especially here, because they play so hard, they’re so scrappy, they’re so well-coached,” said the Marion coach. “But, the same things have been plaguing us for a while.

We make so many errors sometimes. We get a lead, and instead of finishing it and taking care of business, we dilly-dally, we make errors and the other team gets back into it and you look up and they’re fired up and we look like we’re at a funeral.”

At stake last night was sole possession of second place in this year’s 6A/5AEast as each team entered play at 7-1 in the league, with each losing to Valley View, who is the last undefeated team in the conference.

Early on, it seemed like Marion would be more than up to the challenge.

The Lady Pats posted a pair of impressive-looking wins in the first two sets, capturing wins of 25-16 and 25-18.

The visitors were on their way in the third set, as well. Marion bolted out to an 11-3 lead in the potential deciding set , and still led 17-13 as the frame got into the latter stages.

A Sara Betts (15 kills, 3 digs) kill gave Marion a 24-20 lead, leaving her team just one point short of eliminating the Lady Raiders in three straight sets.

Instead, it was Nettleton who reeled off the last six points of the set to shock Marion and force a fourth set.

Senior Annalee Parker (team-high 23 kills, 16 digs, 2 assists and 3 aces) posted kills on three straight plays as Marion took a 5-3 lead in the fourth set, but a see-saw battle ensued from there in a stanza that featured 9 ties and 10 lead changes.

Marion claimed an 18-15 lead following a Sarah Burford (1 ace, 10 kills, 18 digs) kill, which was set up by a sprawling Hope Phipps (team-high totals of 4 aces and 35 digs), which forced a Nettleton timeout.

Gabi Catt (2 aces, 6 kills, team-high 32 assists, 10 digs) got Marion to 20 first when she posted a block for a 20-16 lead.

However, Nettleton ripped off five of the next six points to tie the game at 21-all.

Burford would score on a tip and a kill and Marion again forced match point at 24-21 in the fourth set.

Once again, Nettleton had its sights set on another dramatic rally as the Lady Raiders scored four straight points for a 25-24 lead, which pushed Marion to the point of elimination.

Destiny King (7 kills, 4 blocks, 1 assist, 4 digs) posted a kill to tie the game at 25-all and the teams would alternate points on the next seven points, with Nettleton scoring the last two for a 29-27 lead which forced that final winner-take-all set.

“I was excited last weekend because we were the team that came back from down 20-12. We came back from down 24-20 and came back and won.

Tonight, we gave up the lead, and that was discouraging,” Beasley said. “But, at the same time, we came back in the fifth game. We played hard in the fifth game. We fought, we executed and we took care of business.”

It would be hard to argue that the momentum was firmly on the Nettleton sideline entering the fifthset, a truncated jaunt to 15 points, but Marion responded to that by scoring the first three points of that stanza.

Parker pounded kills for the first two tallies before Betts threw one down for a 3-0 Marion lead before Nettleton scored on a kill.

Marion’s lead crept to 5-1 following a hitting error and a block by Catt, but the Lady Raiders scored four straight to knot the game at 5-all, making the stanza a de facto race to 10 points.

Parker posted her third kill of the set off of a slick pass from Ally Bramucci (3 aces, 6 kills, 25 assists and 8 digs). Marion’s number 12 added her fourth kill two plays later for a 65 Lady Pat lead.

With the game tied at 7all, Parker came up with her fifth kill of the set just before Burford killed a ball and when Parker served an ace, Marion led 10-7, which forced a Nettleton timeout.

On the next play, King posted a kill of her own, which forced another Nettleton stoppage with Marion up 11-7.

King and Bramucci posted kills on back-to-back plays for a 13-8 Marion lead, and Betts slammed the door with kills on the last two plays of the night as Marion wrapped up a 15-8 win.

“We were able to get together a little bit when things weren’t really going our way,” said Beasley.

“You could tell on our faces that we were down and discouraged and we made more mistakes than we usually do, but I kept telling them that we had to move on to the next play and make a better play, or we’re gonna make even more, and we can’t do that with them. I expected a battle, and that’s what we got. I’m proud to get out with a win.”

The win kept Marion very much in the mix for a number of postseason goals, namely a number one seed in the Class 6A state tournament, held this year at Lake Hamilton. It also kept the Lady Pats within one game of 6A/5A-East leader Valley View, who finished their first tour through the league at 9-0 after beating West Memphis 3-0 last night at home.

“This win was huge for that reason. We could have learned some lessons even in a loss, but since we got the win, we’re still in position to win a 6A/5A conference championship if we can take care of ourselves. I’m happy for that, I’m excited for that and it would be great to send this group out as conference champions,” Beasley said.

“We’ve got the talent to do it, but we have to finish.”

Marion opens the second half of its league schedule on Monday afternoon when they host Greene County Tech, of Paragould, beginning at 4:30 p.m.

with a 7th grade match.

By Chuck Livingston