11/1/2009
Blazers in a breeze in regional final
Reprinted with permission from The Sun-Times

STEVE T. GORCHES
The Sun-Times

FULTON -- When most region volleyball followers think of Marquette, one word usually comes to mind.

Dominance.

So how do the Blazers maintain their dominating streak of eight state titles in 10 years, including five straight, and a 45-1 record in the last eight postseasons?

They come at you hard and don't stop until the opposing players have their heads down and tears in their eyes.

It sounds cruel.

It sounds unfair.

It's just the way Marquette volleyball rolls.

That storyline played out once again Saturday afternoon as the Blazers (32-6) rolled over Pioneer 3-0 in the Caston Regional championship.

"When we play, we don't want (the opponent) to even think they can win," said Marquette senior hitter Ashley Edmond, who finished with 16 kills in the final. "We want to pound on them."

And against Pioneer (27-10), that pounding mainly consisted of what Edmond called her team's "strong point." That would be the serving game.

The Blazers had 11 aces as a team in the morning semifinal. They almost doubled that in the championship, led by Brianna Gannon's eight aces. Three of those aces came at the end of the first game, in which Marquette scored the last 10 points to turn a 16-15 deficit into a 25-16 victory.

"Gannon went back there and served us out," Pioneer coach Rod Nies said. "Our goals with Gannon, Edmond and Cerrillos were to limit them to two service rotations and we weren't able to do that."

Pioneer hung tough in the second game even after that dubious finish to Game 1. It finished with five straight points in a 25-19 loss and took a 2-0 lead in the third game.

That was the end of anything for Pioneer fans to cheer about as Marquette rattled off 10 straight points for a 10-2 lead, and finished the game with eight consecutive points for a 25-8 rout.

The Panthers know all too well what it's like to be the team pounded by the Blazers in the regional stepping stone to all those Class 1A state titles. Their season has ended at the hands of Marquette three of the last four years.

"We knew we had to play perfect to have a chance to beat them," Nies said. "We had some girls who kind of caved in under the pressure."

That happens often against Marquette, which has never failed to win a regional since the IHSAA class system was implemented in 1997.

And in case you were wondering, it never gets old for coach Troy Campbell.

"Last week I was watching some old state finals tapes and I got goosebumps," the former police officer said. "This is what we plan on doing every year."