ERIE — The Marmaton Valley Wildcats refused to get pushed around by a larger program while splitting their season-opening triangular against the Erie Red Devils and the Altoona Jets.
The Wildcats held their own against 2A Tri-Valley Conference foe Erie despite falling in a two-set sweep but set the tone against Altoona in their conference opener with a two-set sweep.
“I’m really proud of them. Their serves were good though sometimes we struggled,” said MVHS coach Alyssa Blevins, whose team played a bit shorthanded with all her bench players engaged in a JV contest on a parallel court. “We’ve had small rosters the last couple of seasons. We’re kind of used to it.”
In the opening match of Tuesday’s triangular, the Wildcats nearly traded point for point with Erie, but the Red Devils pulled away midway for a 25-20 victory.
Despite a strong start to the second match, Erie took advantage of MVHS’ inconsistency, pulling away with a larger margin of victory to seal the sweep.
Coach Blevins believes the errors leading to the loss can be easily corrected.
Junior outside setter Sheridan Byrd agreed.
“We had more confidence in the second game. We were ready and knew what we were getting into,” she said.
After opening the season with a dogfight against Erie, the Wildcats downed the Altoona-Midway Jets with a salvo of consecutive aces until bringing both sets to a merciful and quick ending 25-8 and 25-6 respectively.
For Kylah Sander, MVHS’ only senior, the Wildcats triangular finale showed the importance of having a strong mental foundation and being able to build from mistakes made in the previous contest instead of avoiding them.
“If you mess up, then it doesn’t really matter because you got the next one,” Sander said.
ALTHOUGH small in numbers, Coach Blevins likes how her team runs the courts as athletes. With players demonstrating skills on the back line and at the net, what will make Marmaton Valley successful this season is their versatility.
“Everybody on our team is solid in terms of fundamentals and that is going to help us big,” Blevins said. “Most teams have a couple of good hitters. That’s been us before. We’ve had two good hitters but struggled to pass the ball. Coverage-wise, the teamwork and positivity are the best it’s been in a long, long time.”
Marmaton Valley returns to the hardwood Saturday for a 9 a.m. duel against Uniontown.
