Friday, Oct. 03, 2008

Lady Marauders Face Pivotal Matches

MHS Volleyball

By Kevin Lonnquist

Staff Writer

In a short district season like 6-5A has, every game’s importance is magnified. But Marcus volleyball coach Cristie Liles has no intention of letting her squad become spooked by the notion.

A team with nine seniors already knows how to handle it. But this is a telling week for the Lady Marauders (24-9, 1-0), who began Tuesday at Carroll and finish the week tonight against Coppell. Marcus should be competing with these two for the district championship, but they dropped their Carroll match 3-1.

Prior to the Carroll match, Marcus had been streaking over the last three weeks as it had won seven of its last eight matches.

Marcus’ win over Lewisville last Friday ended so early Liles that ran over to scout Carroll and Coppell. At this point of the season, these teams have seen or scouted each other enough times to know their strengths and weaknesses.

Liles’ objective is to look for other things.

"These teams are playing their best players, so I’m looking at the demeanor on the bench with both the coaches and players," Liles said. "But I feel like we’ve come around better in all phases of our game."

Liles does not want overplay the reports with her players. She wants all of them to continue to hone their games. Her idea is just to impress upon them where the opponents are hitting the ball. But then again, everybody does that.

"They’re having fun, and they’re not getting nervous or stressed," Liles said. "This is a mature team."

Another Commitment

Senior outside hitter Lyndi Johnson became the latest in the line of top Marcus players who are going on to play Division I volleyball. Johnson recently gave an oral commitment to the University of Denver.

Oral commitments are non-binding. The first day a player can sign a national letter of intent is Nov. 12. Johnson is the seventh player to play for a Division I school in Liles’ seven seasons.

Emily Maher (Southeast Missouri State) and Jenna Miller (Tennessee-Martin) signed with Division I schools in 2007; Chelsea Saunders (Northern Iowa) went in 2006; Juliana Rogers (Cornell) was in 2005 and Kim Merrill (UT-Arlington) and Cristin Hopkins (Stephen F. Austin) were in 2002.

"These are just good players," Liles said. "They’ve done a great job for our program. But they wouldn’t be where they are without their hard work."

Worthy Causes

When District 6-5A coaches decided to have a Pink Out night on Tuesday, they wanted the awareness for Breast Cancer to be widespread. Marcus was at Carroll, Hebron was at Coppell and Lewisville was at Flower Mound.

Donations were accepted and those who wore pink could get into the matches for free. This started last year when Coppell and Hebron did it. However, Liles said when the coaches met in February, they decided to make it an event for the entire district.

Marcus continues the theme with tonight’s match against Coppell. People who bring a bottle of water to the match will get in for free. The bottles will be donated to the Red Cross to help Hurricane Ike victims along the Texas Gulf Coast.

"These are just philanthropic things that we are honored to be a part of," Liles said. "It’s a real situation for a lot of people. It’s the least that we can do."