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Marietta volleyball gets an edge over Warren in four sets

By Jay W. Bennett 5 min read

MARIETTA – An early season matchup featuring respective one loss programs in Warren and Marietta wasn't lacking for excitement here Thursday night inside Sutton Gymnasium, but the Warriors couldn't keep the momentum following a second set victory and fell to the Tigers 26-24, 26-28, 25-15 and 25-20.

Rylee Wilkinson paced the now 9-1 Tigers of head coach Ron Kidder with a match-high 26 kills.

The Warriors, now 6-2 with a 6:30 p.m. match next up on Tuesday at Fort Frye, received 22 kills apiece from Elayna and Taylor Greenwalt.

Marietta, now winners of four straight since its lone setback at Parkersburg South, also got a pair of aces and nine downed spikes from Maevry McCombs along with 17 kills and one ace by Adele McCombs.

"Give Warren credit. Well coached. Great team," said Kidder, who got 27 assists from Laylah Bradford and 21 more by Addie Graham as libero Ava Prim served an ace on match point. "They've beat a lot of good teams.

"You have to play well as a team if you are going to beat them. You can't just have one or two kids play well. They are very talented and it's a rival, too. We got some nice seniors and we got some nice leaders. They don't get real shook and you can see that."

Warren led 20-18 in the opening set after a Jaelynn Nichols service tally and had set point at 24-23, but three consecutive free ball attack errors allowed the Tigers to escape with the win as Clara Becker toed the service line for the final two points.

"We were running a 6-2 at one point and then went back to a 5-1," admitted WHS head coach Kaitlyn Creamans, who got a match-high 33 assists from Charleigh Hoff. "There's some gaps on our team and we're trying to figure out who is going to step to the plate and fill that.

"We had a couple freshmen up here tonight playing on varsity with us. When we get into these tougher matches, the lineup we were trying to use is not going to do the job, so we're still playing around."

Warren's Imagin Daly had two of her five kills early in set two as the Warriors grabbed a 5-2 cushion.

Despite holding a 16-10 advantage, the Tigers roared back and pushed in front 20-18 after three straight kills by Adele McCombs.

A jump set by Graham led to another Adele McCombs kill as the Warriors faced a 24-21 deficit.

However, Taylor Greenwalt had a kill, Raelann Morgenstern registered a block and it was 24-all after Remi Elzey got a service point on an Elayna Greenwalt mash.

Maevry McCombs put one to the floor to make it 25-24, but it was tied at 25-all thanks to an Addison Clark kill.

Elayna Greenwalt, who had a match-high three aces, blocked Bradford to give the Warriors a set point opportunity, but a service error followed to even it for the final time.

Warren was able to make it a best-of-three match the rest of the way after Morgenstern had a kill and Elayna Greenwalt a block to end the set.

"I wasn't worried about that," Kidder said of the tough set two defeat. "They are good. We got to control what we can control, not what they are doing.

"Even in the second set we could've had it. A few mistakes from us, but that's volleyball."

Graham opened set three with five consecutive service points as the Warriors couldn't get anything going. Bradford served for the final three markers and got set point via a Wilkinson kill.

Elayna Greenwalt's ace had the must-win fourth set for Warren all square at 15 as the Tigers fell behind 19-18 after another kill by Elayna Greenwalt.

However, the Tigers received three more downed spikes from Wilkinson the rest of the way as MHS now gets set for a 7 p.m. Tuesday clash at home versus Eastern.

"I think they came in here with the right mentality and then it was just a lack of execution," added Cremeans. "It wasn't a pass, set and swing consistently. Like we finally get a good pass and then hit the ball into the net or out of bounds.

"Getting that to consistently click is going to be a big key thing for us the next couple of games, but we were just rolling and tipping and they were just swinging ball after ball after ball. We got a lot to work on in the gym."

Overall, Kidder was more than pleased to add another quality win to the resume, but at the same time he tries to keep his players level-headed, especially after a tough loss like in set two.

"You are going to get supper tonight. You are going to go to school this week," Kidder said. "We got a girl named Addi Karcher and she's had seven surgeries on her ACL. She just went and had another one and she's in the ER tonight.

"She was on the JV team last year. She tore her ACL in club season this year. We played this hard game and had Addi on our minds. Things could be a lot worse. This is a game and the kids played hard."

At Sutton Gymnasium

Marietta d. Warren 26-24, 26-28, 25-15, 25-20

Warren (6-2) stats: Raelann Morgenstern 2 aces, 2 K; Annebelle Moore 1 K; Taylor Greenwalt 1 AST, 22 K; Jaelynn Nichols 15 AST; Elayna Greenwalt 3 aces, 22 K; Lizzie Reeder 1 ace, Imagin Daly 5 K; Charleigh Hoff 1 ace, 33 AST; Julianna Walters 1 K

Marietta (9-1) stats: Ava Prim 1 ace, Addie Graham 1 ace, 21 AST; Clara Becker 1 AST; Maevry McCombs 2 aces, 9 K; Adele McCombs 1 ace, 17 K; Laylah Bradford 27 AST; Rylee Wilkinson 26 K

Next matches: Warren at Fort Frye, 6:30 p.m. Tuesday; Eastern at Marietta, 7 p.m. Tuesday.

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