To say the matchup between the visiting Portsmouth Lady Trojans and the Marietta Lady Tigers was a mismatch would probably qualify as the understatement of the season.
Unless, of course, you'd put one of the local high school football teams on the gridiron with say, the Pittsburgh Steelers, and call that a mismatch.
Marietta dominated Portsmouth in every facet of the game en route to a compelling three-game sweep on the volleyball court at Sutton Gym 25-2, 25-9, 25-12.
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KEVIN PIERSON The Marietta Times
Marietta's Alexis Walsh (14) drops a spike against the defense of Portsmouth's Klaire Smith (6) during a volleyball match at Sutton Gym Tuesday evening. Marietta won in three games.
"Our girls were ready to play. They were focused," said Marietta volleyball coach Ron Kidder.
Ready to play?
The Lady Tigers were roaring to play.
That was apparent from the opening serve of the game as Marietta scored 20 points before Portsmouth could even get on the board. In fact, it wasn't until a free ball caught the Lady Tigers a little bit by surprise that Portsmouth finally managed a point.
"I thought our excitement was up and we served aggressively and that helped us," said Marietta sophomore setter Kaitlyn Cozzens.
Aggressive serving got the Lady Tigers started on their romp.
After Portsmouth was whistled for taking an extra hit on the first serve of the game to give Marietta a 1-0 lead Cozzens went on to serve a whopping 19 straight points.
"In practice we stress how important serving is," Cozzens explained. "I think it showed tonight."
By the time Cozzens had worn out her arm on serves the Lady Tigers were up 20-0 as she had recorded 19 points and nine aces. That unexpected hit ended the run at 20-1, but the Lady Tigers weren't quite done scoring yet.
Marietta scored four straight points after Portsmouth finally got on the board to lead 24-1 on a kill from Betsy Schramm.
Portsmouth got its final point of the first game when Ali Summers tried an aggressive jump serve and hit the net. Schramm ended the game on the next serve with one of her seven kills.
Summers' serve into the net was one of the rare miscues on the evening for Marietta, which had team totals of 59 service points, 27 assists and 32 kills.
"We were pretty consistent this game. We didn't hit it out. We didn't hit the net," said Marietta sophomore Alexis Walsh.
Similar to the first game, the night's second game also featured a long streak of 19 straight service points, this time from Schramm.
Portsmouth actually managed to take an early lead in the night's second game as a pair of communication incidents within the Marietta defense lead to the ball hitting the floor with the Lady Tigers simply looking at each other as if to say, 'I thought you had it.'
But that 2-1 lead was the only time Portsmouth found itself in front of Marietta.
A kill from Felicia Zartman tied the match to give the serve back to Marietta and Schramm served 19 straight to make it 21-2 with Marietta eventually winning 25-9 as the Lady Tigers went into cruise control.
The third game was simply more of the same, minus of course the 19 point service streak, as Marietta won 25-12 on a kill from Summers.
That kill from Summers marked the 32nd of the night for Marietta, which was exactly 32 more than Portsmouth had as the Lady Trojans not once recorded a successful spike.
"We can't afford to not go out there and be aggressive and play our game," Kidder said.
Marietta def. Portsmouth
25-2, 25-9, 25-12
PORTSMOUTH (0-6): Kasey Simpson 2 pts 1 ace; Klaire Smith 3 pts 2 aces; Alexis Lanthorn 1 pt; Richelle Bowman 1 pt; Monica Call 1 pt 1 ace
MARIETTA (7-0, 4-0 SEOAL): Kourtney Crum 5 pts 2 aces 6 assists; Alexis Walsh 5 pts 2 aces 4 kills 4 digs; Betsy Schramm 19 pts 3 aces 7 kills 1 block; Ali Summers 4 pts 1 ace 6 kills; Kaitlyn Cozzens 20 pts 9 aces 20 assists; Felicia Zartman 9 kills; Amanda Brown 5 pts 1 ace 7 digs; Haley Bonar 1 assist 3 kills; Kristen Hill 2 kills; Luisa Barton 1 pt
JV score:
Marietta def. Portsmouth 25-12, 25-23
Marietta: Carly Rankin 13 pts; Rylee Willison 9 pts; Emily Jackson 9 pts
Next game: Zanesville at Marietta, 10 a.m. Saturday.
