East Marion (23-5) took care of business on its home court in the first round of the Class I playoffs Oct. 18, sweeping Magee 3-0.
The Eagles won 25-12, 25-16 and 25-20 with a balanced effort on both offense and defense. Head coach Mandell Echols said with the team being out of school, he was impressed with how ready it was to play.
“Tytianna (Porter), I saw her being a leader. When girls were messing up, she was telling them what they were doing wrong, and that’s something I’ve been trying to get her to do all year. I had more girls calling for the ball than I normally would have. They were being aggressive and trying to own the season. They wanted to win.”
Porter paced the Eagles with five kills and three blocks, while Lia Smith and Kaitlyn Echols had three kills each. Hope Cook, Dyani Weary and Smith had four aces apiece to lead the Eagles, which had 19 in the match. Azariyah Magee led the defense with four digs, followed by Jamekia Willis with three.
While the Eagles picked up the win to advance to the next round, Echols said there were a few things in the match he didn’t like.
“Magee got a couple of points where we served the ball and Magee hit it right back, and we weren’t ready for it. We were expecting them to use three volleys to send it over, and we weren’t ready for them to hit it right back over,” he said. “The main (problem) is we get caught up in watching Ty. If she goes up to get a block, the girls will act like she’s going to block it and won’t be ready for the ball. Even if she spikes it, they’re just standing around expecting her to hit it in or out and not being ready for the ball to come back.”
Echols said prior to the Eagles’ Tuesday match in Pascagoula against Resurrection Catholic (20-10), the Eagles will need to be ready for the ball at all times.
“Going to Resurrection they are going to have girls at the net the whole time, and we have to be ready for the ball to come right back. We’re going to preparing for the ball coming from all angles,” he said. “They hit it from the backside, the front row, really from anywhere.”
While results for the second-round match were unavailable at press time, Echols said he thinks this could be the year for the Eagles to make it out of the second round.
“If we come out ready to play, I think it is. We played Gulfport pretty tough, and Gulfport beat Resurrection. If we come out playing like that, the sky is the limit,” he said. “If we play a complete game like that instead of relaxing like we got this, this could be our year.”
An Eagles win would set up a quarterfinals matchup with either Our Lady Academy or Puckett.
UPDATE: East Marion lost to Resurrection Tuesday and was eliminated from the playoffs.
Pictured Above: East Marion’s Kaitlyn Echols rises for a spike against Magee in the first round of the Class I playoffs Oct. 18. | Photo by Joshua Campbell
