11/1/2009
Blazers Back to State
Reprinted with permission from The News Dispatch

Adam Parkhouse
The News-Dispatch

FULTON, Ind. - One might think winning regionals would get to be old hat for Marquette.

After all, following the Class A No. 2 Blazers' easy 3-0 (25-16, 25-19, 25-8) win over Pioneer in Saturday's Caston Regional championship match, Marquette now has won 11 consecutive regionals.

But all it took for coach Troy Campbell to get ready for this tournament was to watch tapes from others he's coached in over the past seven years.

"Last week I watched tapes and I started to get goose bumps," Campbell said. "This is exciting for us. It's exciting to see hard work pay off for our girls."

With the win, Marquette moves on to the Class A State Finals on Saturday at Ball State University's Worthen Arena in Muncie, Ind. Marquette will take on No. 1 Barr-Reeve (36-0) in the second semifinal, which follows the 8 a.m. CST semifinal between Indianapolis Lutheran (20-16) and Wes-Del (27-7). The championship for Class A is set for 1:30 p.m.

Much like in the morning semifinal, Marquette was challenged a bit in this match. At least early on, that was the case.

But when the Blazers (32-6) needed it most, their patented serving game was there to put the Panthers (27-10) away.

In Game 1, with Pioneer battling Marquette step-for-step, a sideout for Marquette tied the game at 16-16. From there, senior libero Brianna Gannon stepped to the service line and served out, recording three of her eight aces during the stretch.

"It's about making sure they're thrown off balance in their serve receive," Campbell said of his team's service game. "We try and take their greatest weapon away."

In Game 2, it was a six-point run early from server Ashley Edmond that gave Marquette a 10-4 lead it would never relinquish.

Game 3 was all Blazers. A 10-point run from Gannon early, which included two aces, made sure of it. Marquette led 10-2 and rolled to yet another regional title from there. In each of the previous 10 seasons, Marquette has parlayed the regional title into a berth in the state championship match, winning eight of those.

"For us, when we play teams," Edmond said, "we don't ever want them to even think they can win."

Edmond had a team-best 16 kills in the match, while Katie Clancy and Rachel Cox chipped in nine and seven, respectively. Amber Cerrillos had 25 assists.

"I'm proud of the way we played, and we'll be ready for next week," Gannon said.

Pioneer coach Rod Nies said his team knew what was ahead of it in the match with the perennial state champs.

"It will be nice to see some of those seniors gone from Marquette. They've best us here three of the last four years," Nies said. "They're doing something right, winning all those state championships. They're pretty damn good."

Marquette 25-25-25, Elkhart Christian Academy 19-19-12 - The Blazers started the day a little sluggish, sleepwalking through much of the semifinal win against the Eagles.

"We were not sharp," Campbell said, noting the team left at 6 a.m. CST for the 9:30 a.m. start.

Elkhart held leads in all three games. In Game 1, Marquette appeared to have pulled away, taking a 17-10 lead after one of Edmond's 17 kills. But the Eagles battled back to 20-18 before an Edmond kill started the Blazers' final rally. A kill from Cerrillos gave the Blazers a 1-0 lead in the match.

Game 2 closely resembled Game 1, except the Eagles jumped out to a 5-1 lead. Marquette streaked back to take an 8-7 lead and didn't look back from there, despite the score remaining close. One of Clancy's 11 kills finished off Game 2 for the Blazers.

In Game 3, it was Marquette's service game, which has remained dormant to that point, that put the match away. Cerrillos had both of her aces during a stretch that saw Marquette's lead grow to 21-11. Edmond also had two aces during that stretch.

Cerrillos had 27 assists while Gannon added 11 digs. Clancy had a team-high 14 digs.

Pioneer advanced to the final by surviving a grueling 26-24, 25-22, 25-17 match with Washington Township.

Contact Sports Editor Adam Parkhouse at aparkhouse@thenewsdispatch.com or 874-7211, Ext. 461.