East Marion’s dream season came to a screeching halt Tuesday evening on its home court.
After dominating the opposition all season to the tune of a 22-1 record, the Eagles fell victim to the six-time defending state champion Our Lady Academy Crescents in the second round of the playoffs.
Head coach Mandell Echols said OLA’s mystique as a powerhouse on the volleyball court kept East Marion from playing their own game.
“I think some of it was (OLA’s reputation),” he said. “The girls were saying they were ready when we first started, but then there was a double called on us. Then they served and one of their girls spiked it on us pretty hard, and it was like from that point on you could see them thinking, ‘Oh man, this OLA’ instead of ‘let’s play volleyball.’”
One of the bigger reasons the Eagles struggled in the match was the versatility of OLA’s attacking. No matter what adjustment Echols tried, the Crescents had an answer.
“One of the main things was they had four girls that were attacking the ball. Our girls just weren’t use to it. We went to another defense and some of the girls were getting confused of what defense we were in. They were a solid team all the way around, and our girls were timid,” he explained. “We were trying to get them to move up and be aggressive because (OLA) wasn’t hitting anything to the back row. Everything was in the middle. But our girls were so conscious of not cheating up toward the front row and wouldn’t move up. They exploited it by just tapping it over.”
There was a positive to take away from the match, however. Amber Willis, who missed the entire regular season, was back on the court for her first extended action after briefly appearing in the first round against Jefferson Davis County. Echols said that while she struggled attacking offensively, she did make some plays defensively.
“Her timing was off, but she did well blocking and adjusting,” he said. “They would set it short to set up their spikes. Our girls are so used to teams setting high, but in this match by the time our girls would jump, they had already spiked it. Amber made a good adjustment, though, to get a hand on it to give our other girls a chance.”
Although the Eagles were eliminated from the playoffs, Echols is proud of the 22-2 season and the way the Eagles fought.
“Every year we’ve improved. I’m very proud of the girls. They fought the whole year. This is the first year I’ve had that even when we were down, they fought,” he concluded. “Last year when we would get down in certain sets, they would drop their heads. We didn’t drop our heads this year and we fought. I’m very proud of some of the younger girls that stepped up.”
Pictured Above: Tytianna Porter skies for a spike against OLA. | Photo by Joshua Campbell
