The hoarseness of her voice and her team’s performance on the scoreboard were indicative of a rough night for new Emporia High volleyball coach Betsy Martling.
In many ways, it was, and in some ways, it was an encouraging night. Ultimately, Martling’s just happy to have first-game jitters out of the way, for both herself and her team.
The Spartans won their opening match at the Emporia Quad on Tuesday night, defeating Topeka High in two games, then dropped a three-game match to Rossville and lost in two games to two-time defending state champion Washburn Rural.
Martling liked the aggressiveness the Spartans showed. What she didn’t like were the unforced errors.
“I think we may have gotten beat, but moreover, we beat ourselves with silly mistakes,” Martling said. “I’m looking forward to the next game, because we know what we need to work on.”
Victory was rarely in doubt against Topeka High, as the Spartans walked away by scores of 25-19 and 25-16. Five straight unanswered points, including a Corinne Edds kill and a block by Ashley Leihsing, turned a 13-10 EHS lead into an 18-10 advantage. The game ended when T-High’s Valencia Garcia fired a serve into the net. Game two was close until the Spartans scored three straight points to grab a 21-14 advantage, highlighted by a block from Hilary Heinrichs. Leihsing smashed a kill to finish off Emporia High’s first victory of 2008.
The Spartans then took the first game from Rossville in a tightly contested 25-23 match before suffering a frustrating 26-24 setback and losing 25-18 in the third game. EHS had leads of 16-10 and 21-16 in game two before the Bulldogs ripped off six straight points, the last a drop shot by Rhiannon Flynn, to take a 22-21 lead. Leihsing slammed a kill off Rossville’s Morgan Cooper and Chelsea Amack to square the game at 24-24, but after a Flynn kill and an EHS net violation, the Bulldogs took the match.
Seven unanswered points by Rossville killed the Spartans in game three, turning a 12-10 game into a 19-10 Bulldog advantage. Four kills by Lauren Longbine helped Emporia storm back to within 21-18, but the Spartans didn’t score again.
The stretch of seven Bulldog points in game three was probably the longest stretch of the types of mistakes Martling said need to be corrected: service errors, poor communication and getting caught in the net.
“In volleyball, you’ve really gotta learn how the person that plays next to you plays,” she said. “You’ve gotta learn what kind of balls they’re gonna take and what kind of balls they expect you to take.
“We’ve got a new team. We’re still learning who we’re playing next to.”
Emporia never had much of a chance against Rural, which won all three of its matches on Tuesday night. The Junior Blues ended the first game with 14 unanswered points to win 25-7. EHS got an emotional boost early in the second game, jumping on top 3-0, before Rural began a seemingly endless onslaught of hard, often-unreturnable kills by Shannon Majors, Emily Conklin and Kelsey Branch. The Blues soon were ahead 9-3 and coasted to a 25-12 win.
“(We) played much, much better volleyball against Washburn Rural,” Martling said. “The score may not have looked good, but we played much better.”
Individually, she said, everyone had their moments, and everyone made their mistakes. The aggressiveness the Spartans showed was what Martling liked the most.
“We hit, and we hit, and we hit,” she said. “Even when the game got tight, or it got too close, or we weren’t getting a big block up, we still hit well.”
In other action in Tuesday’s quad, Rural defeated Rossville 25-8, 25-7 and Topeka High by scores of 25-5, 25-11. Rossville beat Topeka 25-12, 25-21.