Lady Pats complete sweep against GCT

Lady Pats complete sweep against GCT

Marathon week opens with a bang

Sports Editor The Marion Lady Patriots followed a similar formula to victory yesterday afternoon against Greene County Tech.

Playing at Lady Patriot Volleyball Gymnasium, Marion allowed their guests to hang around for two sets, before opening things up in the third on their way to another home victory, their 28th in a row, dating back to 2013.

Marion (16-1 overall, 9-1 6A/5A-East) outlasted the Lady Eagles by scores of 25-19, 25-17 and 25-17 in the first of what is going to be their busiest week of the season with three league games in the next four days, ahead of a run at Arkansas State Playday on Saturday.

“I’m really glad to get a win against a team like that,” said Marion head coach Lisa Beasley following the match. “To win in three is even better, especially with the type of week that we have coming up. Greene County Tech has a good team.”

Following a five-set war at Nettleton last Thursday evening, Marion returned home and immediately stole an 8-6 lead to force a Greene County Tech timeout.

One point later, Marion scored six straight points, in a variety of ways to open up a nice lead early on. Seniors Annalee Parker (team-high 10 kills, 12 digs, 1 ace), Sarah Burford (5 kills, 12 digs) and Ally Bramucci (1 ace, 7 kills, team-high 24 assists) all scored on kills and when Bramucci added another kill, Marion led 15-8.

However, Greene County Tech reeled off four straight points to force a stoppage for Marion at 1512.

From there, the Lady Pats came up with a four-point run highlighted by a nice Gabi Catt (team-high 2 aces, 8 kills, 13 assists, 8 digs) tip and a Bramucci kill, and the hosts were able to stroll to that 25-19 victory.

The second set saw Marion take advantage of some early Greene County Tech errors ahead of a run of six points in seven attempts to claim an early lead.

In that run, Parker had three kills, while Catt and Burford came up with one apiece, for a 9-8 lead.

However, that set would go back-and-forth the rest of the way, as the Lady Eagles tied the game at 16all in a later portion of the contest.

However, Marion would respond when Sara Betts (1 ace, 10 kills, 3 digs) posted a kill ahead of a Catt kill and despite Greene County Tech calling for time, a Betts ace in between two Lady Eagle errors gave Marion a 22-16 lead.

Junior Destiny King (3 kills, 2 blocks, 1 dig) posted a kill following a free ball and a Tech error got Marion to 25, one set away from victory.

The early portion of the third set may have been one of Marion’s better performances in a few weeks.

The Lady Pats scored the first four points to force a very early Tech timeout, and that lead grew to 10-3 to force the second stoppage for the visitors.

Catt posted consecutive aces for a 13-3 lead Marion lead, and a King kill restored Marion’s 10-point lead at 15-5.

The lead would grow to as much as 17-6 following a Burford kill.

“I think we cleaned up a lot of our mistakes from earlier in the game. We had a lot of errors up to that point,” Burford explained.

“Offense, defense, just bad passes. I think we got into a bit of a funk. But once we got back into the rhythm, that was a lot better.”

Greene County Tech would work its way back into the mix by scoring five straight points, and seven of eight overall, but Parker handled assists from Bramucci three times down the stretch to get Marion to the finish line first for its second sweep of Greene County Tech this season.

“I saw some really good things tonight,” Beasley said. “Tech is a bigger team, they have a lot of height. A lot of these teams have more size than we do, and they’re another one of them with that height.

They also cover for their hitters well, so even if we were to get a touch on it, they have someone there.

They’re just a good team.”

Marion’s junior varsity lost in the set that it played against Greene County Tech. The Lady Pats got aces from Caroline Brinkley and Maggie Aureli, while Carly Russell posted 2 kills to lead the team. Claire Moncrief and Russell were tops in digs, with 2 and Lillian Fogleman posted 2 assists to lead Marion.

Marion is at Wynne tonight, and at Forrest City on Thursday evening. The Lady Pats return home for a match with defending Class 5A state champion Valley View on Tuesday, September 27.

The Lady Blazers are the only team to beat Marion this season, a four-set victory in Jonesboro in late August.

By Chuck Livingston