Pretty good night in pink

Pretty good night in pink

Lady Pats drop Lady Devils

Sports Editor At times, it was a mixed bag, but the Marion Lady Patriots were able to continue a long home winning streak, and remain in the hunt for the 6A/5A-East conference title by sweeping West Memphis last night at Patriot Volleyball Gym.

The Lady Pats dropped their Crittenden County rivals 25-7, 25-11 and 25-6, to win for the 22nd straight time since becoming conference opponents in time for the 2006 season.

The victory extended their home winning streak to 31 straight home matches, dating back to a loss on September 5, 2013 against Jonesboro, that season’s Class 6A state volleyball title.

“We did what it took to win, which is always the goal,” said Marion head coach Lisa Beasley following the match. “West Memphis played really hard, they’re very scrappy and got after it on defense, so you must give them a lot of credit for that, but this was big for us be able to win tonight.”

Marion (24-2 overall, 14-1 6A/5A-East) scored 4 of the first 5 points of the opening set, 3 of which came on hitting errors.

Later, the Lady Pats scored five straight points, 3 of which came on Sara Betts kills, for a 12-6 advantage, and forced a West Memphis timeout.

That was just the beginning, however. That run of 5 points was the beginning of Marion scoring 14 of the last 15 points to claim that 25-7 win.

In that stretch, Betts posted 5 kills, Sarah Burford had 3 kills and 2 aces, and Annalee Parker had 3 kills of her own.

As sharp as Marion was at times in the first set, the second set wasn’t quite as smooth as the Lady Pats posted an uncharacteristic 6 serving errors in that set.

“Just same ol’, same ol’. We’ve had a lot of those during the year,” Beasley admitted. “We had gotten away from that the past few weeks, but they were back tonight.”

As Marion struggled with its serve, that was a net positive for the Lady Blue Devils. West Memphis served 3 aces in the whole match, with several quality serves sprinkled in.

“It’s always good to see, because those are quick points,” said West Memphis head coach Erin Neeley following the match. “I think that they were taking care of the twoman serve/receive that Marion was showing us and we were able to take advantage of it a few times.”

Betts was back in the second set as she had a hand in 3 of Marion’s first four points in that stanza by posting a block, and a pair of kills as classmate Ally Bramucci lent a helping hand with a pair of assists.

West Memphis was able to scratch out 3 straight points midway through the second set following kills by Cameron Aaron and Anna Nelson and a block at the net by Kassidy Pardy.

However, Betts posted kills on back-to-back plays, while Parker did the same to get Marion a 24-11 lead and a hitting error gave the Lady Pats the second set and a 2-0 lead.

The third set was seized by Marion early on. With the stanza tied at 2-all in the earlygoing, the hosts scored 14 straight points to take control.

In that run, Parker had 3 kills and a block, Betts posted 3 kills of her own, Bramucci handed out 4 assists, Burford served 4 aces and Catt came up with 2 blocks at the net.

Junior Destiny King posted kills on consecutive plays and Parker served aces on the last two points of the set to clinch that frame and the match for Marion.

Marion also won the junior varsity contest, 25-18. In that set, Lillian Fogleman and Claire Moncrief led the team with 2 aces apiece, while Maggie Aureli posted a team-high 4 kills. Fogleman led the way with 7 assists and Caroline Brinkley had 6 digs.

Carly Russell chipped in with 3 kills and a dig, Morgan Whited had 3 kills, Sammi Kelley posted a kill and Sarah Thompson also had a dig.

Marion will travel to play Blytheville on Thursday, while West Memphis hosts Wynne at Lehr Arena.

The Lady Pats play at Jonesboro next Tuesday before hosting Nettleton for their Senior Night next Thursday.

By Chuck Livingston