Marion Local volleyball headed back to state

ELIDA - Marion Local will defend its Division IV state championship after disposing of Leipsic 25-11, 25-13, 25-18 in the regional championship at the Elida Fieldhouse on Saturday.

Marion Local will face Newark Catholic at noon Friday at the Nutter Center on the campus of Wright State University in Dayton.

The Flyers (24-2) jumped out to a 17-3 lead in the first game and never looked back en route to their fourth trip to the state tournament. The Flyers won the state championship last year, were runner-up in 2002 and made it to the semifinals in 2000. Leipsic finishes the season 24-3.

"We really stressed to the girls at the beginning of the game to get off to a good start," Marion Local coach Amy Steininger said. "We really wanted to set the tone of the match. And I thought we got off to a great start."

Sophomore Alyssa Winner did most of her damage in the first game with eight kills. For the match Winner had 21 kills.

"I thought we just played well overall," Winner said. "We were just swinging away and I was feeling it. Their defense was good, but we knew we could find the holes and pick them apart a little bit."

The Vikings used both of their timeouts during the Marion Local run, but could not stop the Flyers' momentum.

"We were looking for answers," Leipsic coach Bob Moran said. "Our girls were shocked. They could not believe the score was that bad that quick. We just did not have it."

In the second game tied at eight, the Flyers went on another run.

Back-to-back kills by Winner, an ace by Leah Rosenbeck, kills by Margaret Wuebker and Leah Griesdorn and several unforced Leipsic errors gave Marion Local a 20-8 lead.

"Leipsic has a lot of size," Steininger said "We tried to run a quick offense and have better ball control than them and we knew our defense would be solid."

Rosenbeck had four kills and Wuebker had six kills for the match. As a team Marion Local recorded six aces.

"I think they hurt us with their short serves," Moran said. "Most of our short serve people did not take the serve-receive and it was tough for us. We give them tips and free balls and you can't give free balls and give them free swings up there."

The Vikings jumped out to a 7-2 lead in game three, but the Flyers closed the gap behind the strong serving of Winner. Tied at 12, kills by Wuebker and Winner along with strong blocking and Leipsic errors gave the Flyers a 25-18 win.

"We played with a bunch of confidence and if we play with confidence we can get far," said Marion Local senior Jessica Schwieterman. "It (playing at the state tournament) means a lot to me and I definitely thought it was a possibility."