Sophomore Maria Kramer connects for a point with this kill attempt in the second set of Thursday win over Marion Local. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
Third-ranked new Bremen closes in on the end of their regular season with win #16 Thursday, in straight sets over Marion Local.
New Bremen, OH – New Bremen coach Diana Kramer had that contented look Thursday following the Cardinals 25-10, 25-23, and 25-21 win over Marion Local (12-7) – the one she usually gets in mid-October as her volleyball team rounds into tournament form.
The Cardinals did a lot of the things Thursday that Kramer preaches, jumping off to a 25-10 win in the first set, then settling in to take the inevitable comeback effort from the Flyers after a floundering start.
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They served spectacularly, negating Marion’s serve-receive effort.
They minimized hitting errors, further complimenting their aggressive offensive style.
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They blocked, and scored a proportionate number of times off those blocks.
And, they communicated and passed well.
Do those four things and Kramer is usually going to be a happy camper.
“I thought we played well,” she later added. “We got off to the great start, knowing that Marion Local was going to make a run at some point.
“We worked with a new lineup out there, some girls are playing in different positions, but overall I thought we played exceptionally well. I like where we are. We’re gaining confidence every single day, and that’s where you want to be at this point of the season.”
A little ‘coach-speak’, and more than a little fact. The Cardinals are rounding into tournament form with two regular season games left to play, and Kramer saw the things Thursday against a competitive and dangerous Marion Local team that gives her comfort to face the upcoming challenge of the state’s arbitrary best – the other top teams on this week’s coaches poll for Division VI.
The shots came from everyone…Gabrielle Pleiman tips one over to score in the second set of Thursday’s match.
She always likes a fast start and the Cardinals roared to a 10-0 lead in the first set before Marion scored its first point. The serving game was on point, hard and the ball moving like Niekro’s knuckleball, tying up Marion’s effort on first contact.
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“It’s usually something that we do pretty well,” said Flyers coach Marcia Moeller. “But tonight we didn’t do it very well.”
New Bremen took the first set 25-10.
True to Kramer’s suspicion of a Marion comeback, the Flyers used the three minutes between sets to their advantage. They came out for the second set with more poise, confidence, and quickly overcame a Bremen 6-1 lead to tie the game at 16-16, then took the lead as the Cardinals ran into a short series of mistakes and hitting errors. Marion crept out to a 22-20 lead, only to have New Bremen get the serve, and score the final two points to win the set 25-23.
“I was proud of the way we came back in the second game,” said Moeller. “We still had some mental errors that we don’t typically make, but again, New Bremen is an awesome team so to learn from game one and compete like we did in games two and three was good. They served very aggressive, and it was working for them tonight.”
Game three was a carbon copy of game two, a couple of runs by each team, a couple of lead challenges, including Marion Local at the end. But in the end it was simply too much New Bremen – the aggressive style on offense, risk and reward. It was working for them, as they closed out the match, 25-21.
Marion’s Faith Ronnebaum adds a point to the Flyers’ comeback bid in the final set.
“I’m not surprised at the fast start tonight,” Kramer later added. “Things felt good at the beginning. And that’s the expectation moving forward from now on. And I wasn’t surprised that they came back. That’s a senior-dominated team that’s played in a lot of big matches. And it’s MAC volleyball. Tonight was what you expect, and I’m glad to see us come out on top and make a statement.”
The same statement that she’s made routinely since 2017 when Kramer won the first of her four state titles with the Cardinals. Different players, different styles, but in the end a familiar outcome. The team that can beat New Bremen in the post-season has to out-New Bremen them to do it. And it all starts with serving aggressively, and serve-receive.
“It’s who we are,” says Kramer. “We want to put pressure on opponents with our aggressive style.”
And with the youngest team she’s had in her decade as coach. It doesn’t seem to matter. The expectation is that you adjust quickly with MAC volleyball.
It’s tournament time.
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