Marion’s Brook Evers threads the needle for a point in Tuesday’s win over visiting Russia. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
Gaining confidence, and a bit of verve with each passing match, Marion Local joins Coldwater as the MAC’s only unbeatens with a straight-set win Tuesday over Russia.
Maria Stein, OH – In baseball they warn you about giving opposing teams free bases…walks, for instance.
In football they say that penalties can get you beat by giving opponents additional yards.
And in basketball, of course, the more you foul the more times you send an opponent to the line for a chance to score unguarded.
But there are no walks in volleyball…no penalties…and no fouls. But there is an equivalent, and it’s called unforced errors – serving errors, and hitting errors – that allow opponents to score without even making a play on the ball.
Russia’s Izzy Chapman makes a dizzying save on this ball during Tuesday’s match with Marion Local.
In a capsule that’s what helped Marion Local to an easy straight-set win over Russia Tuesday in a non-conference match, 3-0. It was a frustrating night for coach Aaron Watkins’ young Raiders, who every time they closed a deficit on Marion Local would hit a serve into the net or a kill attempt out of bounds. Marion Local took the match, 25-17, 25-19, and 25-17.
The errors were simply too much for Russia to get beyond, despite the fact of playing energetic defense, extending rallies, and making Marion work continually to score in the opening set. They helped Marion measurably to build an early 12-8 advantage, and Russia simply couldn’t close the margin over the next 13 points, dropping the set 25-17.
It continued during the second set, eight different serving and hitting errors that frustrated Watkins and the Flyers, and preventing them from mounting that all-important element in volleyball…momentum. It was closer, but Marion won it, 25-19.
In the third Marion jumped out to an 8-1 lead, Russia had some moments to claw its way back to a 10-3 moment, but the next thing you new Marion was up 17-10…and they never got closer than 7. The Flyers closed out the match, 25-17.
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“We played pretty well, and it was nice to see so many of the little things we’ve been working on finally start to come together,” said first-year Marion coach Katherine Dirksen. “It’s important that you take care of the ball, be really intentional with the volleyball…you want to make shots happen and not just hope they happen. That’s what I’m beginning to see with this team. I’m so glad to talk about this because I saw those things tonight.”
Enough things have come together for Marion Local to suddenly be 8-0 on the season, and along with Coldwater the only current unbeatens in the MAC Conference.
Russia libero Kourtney Phlipot finds herself on the business end of a dig attempt in Tuesday’s loss at Marion Local.
They did take care of the ball. They did make enough shots happen to where Russia struggled to get into system, and stay there. They’re young, but athletic, and with just enough senior experience to call on when it’s time to be intentional with the ball.
Avae Unrast, Natalie Evers, Chloe Ronnebaum…scan the images of the game and they’re in almost everyone of them. They’re gaining confidence by the day, and they’ll need it. Yet to play on their conference schedule…St.Henry, Coldwater, and New Bremen.
“It’s a good opportunity to get all the game-time experience possible,” added Dirksen. “Because this gives a chance to have some of those things cleaned up before we have those bigger games down the road.”
Russia (2-5) took it’s time to get out of the locker room and on the bus home. They, like Marion, are focused on cleaning some things up before they reach the same bigger games down the road.
“We’ve worked on being a little more aggressive with our serving,” said Aaron Watkins, when they finally did come out. “And I think some of tonight was a result of that. It’s a different gym to play in – lower ceilings, the backdrop is a little different – and we’re also focusing a ton on defense, that and serve/receive. I think that part of our game is improving. But we have to put balls away, we’re young, and we’re just not doing that right now. We’ll keep improving.
“You can’t give teams free points, and that’s part of being young. Like I’ve said before, I like my group, we’re headed in the right direction, we’ve just got to keep getting more disciplined, and better.”
He wasn’t quite so glad to talk about the things he saw, like Katherine Dirksen was…but Aaron Watkins was smiling when he and the Raiders boarded the bus back to Russia.
There are bigger things down the road, and he’s confident…they’ll be better.
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