THE COLONY— The Colony High School was the site for a pair of bi-district battles Thursday as the volleyball postseason began across the area.
Fresh off back-to-back District 6-6A championships, Plano West welcomed Marcus back into the playoff fray, and while the Lady Marauders proved valiant, the Lady Wolves were simply too much to handle in a straight-set sweep on neutral ground (25-8, 25-16, 25-19) in Class 6A Division II action.
“They knew what they had to do tonight,” said West head coach Cooper Phillips. “In a perfect world, I don’t have to do much. I’m vocal as a coach, and they were vocal as well. It wasn’t anything crazy we did, we just did the right thing.”
West (27-5, 14-2) senior Brooklyn Poerner opened the scoring in the third set that saw the most back-and-forth. Junior setter Lola Peters found senior hitter Armie Hall and a pair of violations saw West jump out to a 5-2 lead.
“We’re really excited. We’re really close as a team, so getting a win and playing together is fun and exciting,” said Hall. “We did have messy moments, but we stayed together as a team and thought about what we can do next to beat hard teams like Marcus.
“It’s an opportunity because being ranked high, especially in 6A, you have to prove to people why we’re ranked that way.”
Marcus (18-20, 8-6) sophomore setter Annie Easton found fellow sophomore Madilyn Brito to make it 5-4 before a string of net violations and shots landing out of bounds helped West produce a three-point lead.
Poerner released a serve that was received but bounced straight back to Hall, who was ready, slamming it back over the net before Peters found her for a traditional kill on the next point, making it 12-7 Lady Wolves.
Senior hitter Emerson Ortmeier and junior Emily Bazelais were able to maximize on four Easton assists that brought the score to 16-12.
Senior Katelyn Vo served an ace ahead of another pair of Peters assists, extending the West advantage to 23-16.
Ortmeier added another kill off an assist from junior setter Ainsley Goff before a Bazelais kill marked the final Lady Marauder point of the set, the match and the season, closing the third set 25-19.
To open the contest, West had the pedal to the metal. Peters found Hall for the first point of the match and an ace from sophomore Campbell Arnold gave them a 5-1 lead. Another Peters-Hall connection drew a timeout at 7-1 and senior Blaire Bowers added another before Marcus could grab another point.
Senior Elizabeth Oh connected with Peters for two kills, showing her versatility as both a setter and a hitter, before a Peters block at the net gave West a double-digit lead at 14-4. Oh and Peters continued to take turns notching assists until Oh served three aces across six points to close a dominating set, 25-8. Of those eight Marcus points, four came from out-of-bounds West serves.
“In that first set, we came out strong,” said Phillips. “And even most of their points were ones we gave up. Not many teams are going to do that twice.”
And Phillips’ sentiment was proven correct with Marcus doubling their output in the second set. Ortmeier and senior Ashtyn Good got Marcus out to a 3-1 lead before Easton and Brito made it 6-2.
West pushed back in uncommon fashion, with three straight blocks at the net for points from junior Blair Sims, Bowers and Peters.
The teams traded points up through 13-13 before Poerner and Peters took the set over. Poerner teamed up with Bowers for a block and then added two kills, two assists and a Marcus net violation sparked a six-point push.
Easton found Ortmeier twice, but Peters added two kills and two assists to put West up two sets to zero, 25-16.
West will advance to the area round and face the winner of Arlington and Irving Nimitz.