The playoff picture on the volleyball court for Region 7 has begun to crystalize with East Marion clinching the top spot, Columbia tied for second and West Marion mathematically eliminated. Only the top two teams qualify for the postseason.
East Marion (18-4, 9-0) played eight matches over a seven-day stretch, including five during the Gulfport Tournament and has its sights set on finishing the district schedule without losing a single set. The Eagles have won all 27 Region 7 sets so far this season with just one match to go at Tylertown Thursday night at 6.
“My girls have been taking pride in not losing a set and have said they don’t want to lose one set against district (opponents) this year. That makes me proud that they’re taking pride in excellence,” head coach Mandell Echols said. “They don’t just want to win; they want to win without losing a set.”
The Eagles kicked off their latest stretch with a 3-0 victory over Columbia Sept. 13, with Tytianna Porter leading the way with 10 kills, seven digs and four blocks. Kaitlyn Echols added six kills and four blocks, while Hope Cook had nine assists and five aces.
Then East Marion traveled to Gulfport to play five matches Sept. 15, coming away with two wins and three losses. The Eagles swept Picayune and Meridian 2-0, got swept by Gulfport and Biloxi 2-0 and lost to Presbyterian Christian 2-1.
“We saw the level of play it takes to win championships because Gulfport and Biloxi play at the level OLA and Resurrection (Catholic) play at. I think we competed well,” Echols said. “Against Biloxi they were serving the ball hard, and our girls were in shock. I think it will help us and let the girls know they can compete on that level.”
The Eagles bounced back from the tournament with back-to-back 3-0 victories over Salem Sept. 18 and West Marion Sept. 20 to improve to 9-0 in district play. Echols said there are a couple of things he hopes the Eagles will improve on during their final matches of the season, beginning with the district finale Thursday night at Tylertown.
“Just being ready. We’ve lost some points just because we weren’t ready. Also, being ready to see that hard ball coming at us,” he said.
East Marion added a game to the schedule Oct. 11 against Puckett, according to Echols, because both programs have already clinched their respective districts and want to see how they match up against one another.
The Wildcats (7-14, 5-3), meanwhile, have used the loss to East Marion Sept. 13 and four matches of their own in the Gulfport Tournament to improve as a team and get in position for a playoff spot.
Columbia lost all four matches it played against Meridian, St. Martin, Pass Christian and East Central Sept. 15 but rallied for a 3-2 victory over Tylertown on the road Sept. 18 and back-to-back sweeps in a doubleheader over Amite County Sept. 20.
Against Tylertown the Wildcats had a number of players set new career highs. Abby Morris and Lauren Hill both had 25 kills, Dariel Recasner had 23 digs, Kaitlyn Fitzgerald had 27 assists and Michelle Martin had 23 assists.
“We had two really good games against East Central and St. Martin and played good in periods. We did better in our fundamentals with our blocking, serving and passing,” head coach Scott Fitzgerald said.
Fitzgerald said the Wildcats need to beat both Salem Tuesday night on the road (UPDATE: Columbia lost 3-1) and West Marion Thursday night at 6 at home to clinch a playoff berth, and he believes the Wildcats are ready for the challenge.
“I think it will be good for them, and they’ll be excited,” he said. “We’d most likely be travelling to Puckett in the first round, and whoever wins that gets to host OLA. It’s kind of a catch-22. It would be good to make the playoffs, but then we’d run into the seven-time state champion right afterwards.”
The Trojans (7-8, 3-5) had their playoff dreams evaporate in smoke during their past two matches, losing to Salem 3-0 Sept. 13 at home and East Marion on the road Sept. 20.
Head coach Todd Pittman said it wasn’t that the Trojans played bad, but they ran into a pair of quality opponents at the wrong time.
“We made a few mistakes, but we played well against East Marion. They’re just a very good team. Athletically, they run a lot of balls down other teams can’t get to,” he said. “It’s a tough place to play there at Salem because they support their program quite a bit and always have a good little crowd. It just came down to the same thing we’ve dealt with all year long; we just didn’t play consistently.”
Pittman added the Trojans have surrendered too many free points this season due to those consistency issues, which makes it more difficult to win.
West Marion played Tylertown Tuesday afternoon at home (results unavailable) and will play its final district match of the season Thursday at Columbia. The Trojans have four non-district matches remaining in October, beginning with a road match against Richton Oct. 4. Pittman said the young Trojans can help themselves for next season down the stretch.
“We want to keep building for next year. We hurt ourselves for playoffs when we let Tylertown beat us a couple weeks ago,” he said. “We only have two seniors, so we’ll have basically everybody coming back. I want to let a couple of the younger girls get a few more sets in on varsity and get them acclimated.”
Pictured Above: East Marion's Destiny Brown returns a serve against West Marion. | Photo by Joshua Campbell
