Their winning streak is up to 14 games, and the East Marion Eagles are set to embark on their journey through the Class 1A/3A playoffs.
The Eagles (14-1) will be facing an all-too-familiar opponent in the opening round and will need to bring their A-game to advance. The Eagles are set to face Resurrection Catholic (21-5) at home Thursday to start the postseason, and head coach Mandell Echols said they need to stay ready because each year Resurrection is solid in every aspect of the game.
East Marion was swept by Resurrection in the second round of the playoffs last year, which Echols said had a lot to do with not being prepared. He said the Eagles were so used to Tytianna Porter’s spikes not being returned that when Resurrection did return them they gave up a lot of easy points that snowballed throughout the match.
“I know they have one girl (Caroline Roberts) coming back that’s a hitter, and she’s pretty good. Overall we just need to stay ready and not give up those easy, mental points,” he said. “If we can get past them in the first round, we got a shot because we wouldn’t have to face (Our Lady Academy) until the championship.”
Resurrection is as potent at the net as it serving with 818 kills, 80 blocked shots and 321 aces as a team on the year. It also has a size advantage over East Marion with three girls standing 5-foot-9 or taller.
The Eagles only played once in the past week, a dominant 3-0 home sweep of South Pike. Echols said Kaitlyn Echols took control of the leadership reigns and challenged her teammates to play hard and play well, and they responded.
“I expect that to keep going,” Echols said.
East Marion closed out its regular season Thursday at South Pike, but results were unavailable at press time. Echols said prior to the match Thursday that if the Eagles play the way they did in the first match against South Pike that he will feel really good about them being on the right path to play to their potential.
“That’s what we’ve been trying to work on these last couple of days, playing to our potential,” he said.
Pictured Above: East Marion's Azariyah Magee returns a serve against West Marion. | Photo by Joshua Campbell
