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Marion downs Valley View; ties for league lead

Sports Editor It wasn’t a state tournament game at all.

After all, the calendar shows that it isn’t even October yet, and a loss wasn’t going to send Marion or Valley View home after last night’s clash at Patriot Volleyball Arena.

Despite that, it would be difficult to say that the tilt between the 2015 Class 5A state champion Lady Blazers and the defending Class 6A titleists didn’t have a state tournament feel to it.

In a rematch of a late August meeting in Jonesboro that handed Marion its first loss of 2016, this time it was the Lady Pats dealing Valley View (19-1-1 overall) their first loss in a 3-0 decision (25-22, 25-14 and 25-20) that tied the two schools at the top of the 6A/5A-East with identical league records of 12-1.

It was Marion’s 29th straight home win, dating back to September 5, 2013 in a loss to that season’s eventual Class 6A champion, Jonesboro.

Nobody knows better than Marion head coach Lisa Beasley that the stakes in last night’s game weren’t on par with a postseason contest, but to say that she wasn’t pleased would not be accurate.

“This is the team that I’ve been looking for,” said Beasley as she beamed while players, fans and parents celebrated around her. “After Saturday, we had a talk. We had a long practice yesterday, but it was good, you know?

These girls don’t like to lose, and it didn’t feel like it at the time, but I think it was the best thing to ever happen to us. I told them, if I had to explain them as anything, we’ve been sporadic, we’ve been up-anddown, we’ve kind of been a yo-yo. Tonight, I felt like we played consistent, we played so hard. We still made some serving errors, but to beat Valley View at all, let alone in three sets, I can’t be anymore happy than I am right now.”

While Valley View was responsible for Marion’s first loss of 2016, when last seen, the Lady Pats were dropping its second game, losing to Batesville in the knockout round of the Arkansas State University Playday Tournament over the weekend.

The first set of last night’s match was a see-saw affair that boasted six ties and five lead changes in the first 24 points alone as each school dug in its heels at 12 points apiece.

That’s when seniors Annalee Parker and Sara Betts threw down kills on back-to-back points, and a Valley View hitting error gave the hosts a 15-12 lead, which drew a timeout from the Lady Blazers.

With the score at 16-13, Parker would score Marion’s next 4 points on kills for a 20-15 advantage. Valley View would make a run to get within 23-21, but that was answered by kills by Betts and Parker to get Marion home with that 25-22 set 1 victory.

The three-minute break between sets did little to cool Marion off in front of its raucous home crowd as Betts and Sarah Burford skied for kills and an Ally Bramucci ace gave Marion a 3-1 lead ahead an athletic Parker dig that featured the senior skidding across the floor to keep the ball alive and eventually led to Valley View hitting the ball into the net.

Marion ripped off four straight points for an 11-6 lead, and that featured a Destiny King kill, a Bramucci tip and an ace from senior Gabi Catt.

That was met with a timeout by Valley View.

That stoppage paid off for the Lady Blazers as the visitors worked back within 15-13 to force a Marion timeout.

That call for time sparked the Lady Pats and Marion scored 9 of the final 10 points of that set to run away with a 25-14 win and push the Lady Blazers a set away from defeat.

“They’re always so wellcoached. Margie (McGee) always makes the exact right changes that they need between sets, in timeouts or whatever,” Beasley of counterpart.

The third set was again airtight throughout. Marion led by as many as four points early on, and it matched that advantage when Parker posted consecutive kills for a 17-13 lead, which forced a Valley View timeout.

Consecutive scores for Betts gave Marion its largest lead at 22-17 before a Burford ace got the Lady Pats to 24-17 and a Betts kill slammed the door on Valley View’s first loss in nearly a year, and firmly reinserted Marion into the conference title discussion. “There was a lot of pressure on us to win, and to try and win in three sets,” Betts said following the match. “We had a really long devotion in the locker room during the second set of the junior high A game and I think that helped us tonight.”

Betts is part of a senior class that has never lost at home, and have dropped only 13 matches in all.

Included in that run are consecutive Class 6A state title game appearances, and last season’s state championship, the third in school history.

Of those 13 losses, Marion has gone on to defeat the team that beat them later in the season five times, including last night’s win against Valley View.

“Every year when we’ve lost with this group, and we play that team again, I’ve always been able to tell them ‘Hey, it’s time for some redemption, let’s show them what we’re all about,’ and we play well at home, and they responded that way tonight,” said Beasley.

By Chuck Livingston