Girls volleyball: Marquette overcomes slow start, tops Putnam County 25-23, 25-21

OTTAWA – Marquette coach Mindy McConnaughhay couldn’t remember a time when she’s called a timeout as early as she did in the opening set of Thursday’s Tri-County Conference match at Bader Gymnasium against Putnam County.

After watching the Panthers’ Addy Leatherman’s kill on the first point of the night fall between three of her players followed by three Crusaders hits that went wildly out of bounds, McConnaughhay stopped the action.

“We have really been talking about having mental toughness, really since the start of practices,” she said. “You could see after the first four points we didn’t come out ready to go or mentally weren’t where we needed to be. I just said to them, ‘Now is your chance to show you are all mentally tough. Get your composure and let’s play.’”

Marquette regrouped and followed with a 16-5 run, then used consecutive aces by Hunter Hopkins to take the first set 25-23. In the second set, another middle-of-the-set burst, this one 13-5, helped the hosts to a 25-21 win.

“The girls were able to get things straightened out and found a nice rhythm the rest of the night,” McConnaughhay said. “That said, we can’t continue to start matches like this. We have to be ready to go right from the start. Every point is important, and if you’re going to give teams four or five points at the start of the set, it’s going to come back to bite you.”

Marquette, which now has won the past seven meetings over PC dating to 2018, improved to 7-4 overall and 2-1 in conference play. The Panthers fell to 4-5 and 1-2.

“Unfortunately, we missed a lot of serves tonight [nine], and many of them were in key situations where it turned a two-point set into a four- or five-point set quickly,” Putnam County coach Amy Bell said. “You have to serve aggressive, but you also have to keep it in the court or otherwise you’re just handing points away with soft serving.

“I really thought we did a good job defensively. Marquette has multiple girls who can really hit it, and I thought we adjusted well to where they were trying to hit it. With it still being pretty early in the season, it was great to see our defense really play solidly.”

The Crusaders were led by six kills each from Kinley Rick and Avery Durdan, with Kelsey Cuchra adding three. Makayla Backos posted nine points, including a pair of aces, and Kealey Rick had eight points and two aces. Hopkins recorded three aces.

Putnam County was paced by Myah Richardson’s five kills, three assists, three aces, eight points and seven digs. Eme Bouxsein had two assists, nine points and nine digs; Leatherman had three kills; and Sarah Wiesbrock added 10 digs.

“I have a pretty young squad, so they are still trying to find ways to work together,” Bell said. “They are learning and growing, and with each match we play they are getting better. We ran a lot more options tonight than we have, and we looked pretty good. There are good things to come for this group.”

PC led 23-21 in the first set after a kill and ace by Richardson. But after a serving error for sideout, Hopkins served back-to-back aces before a Panthers’ hitting error on set point.

“I think we all knew what coach was going to say before she said it,” Hopkins said of the early timeout. “We didn’t get off to a good start at all, but I feel like after the timeout we started to play like we can.

“[On the two aces] I was just trying to get it over and in and not miss. Those situations, late in sets when the score is close or tied are nerve-racking, you just have to trust the work you’ve put in. I tend to let up a little in those situations, but I’m also wanting to make sure I’m staying aggressive. It’s a fine line, I guess.”

The second set was tied at 8, but mini service runs by Kinley Rick and Backos grew the home team’s lead to 20-11. Putnam County closed to within 23-18 on a kill by Kacie Coleman, but Marquette ended the match on a kill by Backos.

Both squads are back in action on the road Monday, PC at Bureau Valley and Marquette at Indian Creek.