This was exactly the way Lauren Fletcher and the Marcellus girls volleyball team imagined how the 2007-08 season would transpire.
Not only did the Mustangs go undefeated and claim the Section III Class B championship, it did so by gaining full revenge on anyone that had kept them from those goals the previous two years.
First, Marcellus beat Cazenovia in the Class B-1 final on Feb. 16, avenging its defeat to those same Lakers on that same Jamesville-DeWitt court in 2006.
Four nights later, the Mustangs were back at J-D, facing Mount Markham in the overall Class B final – a rematch of 2007 where, in this same round, that other group of Mustangs prevailed when Marcellus proved to be inconsistent at the service line.
Remembering all this, and bent on avoiding a repeat of this situation, Marcellus throttled Mount Markham in a three-game sweep that took just an hour to complete.
Going in, if Marcellus was concerned about anything, it was trying to neutralize Mount Markham’s powerful front-line hitter, Geanna Farruggia, and its solid service game.
However, Mount Markham was handicapped, to a small degree, by the long battles that had preceded this match. It needed five games to beat Adirondack in the Class B-2 semifinals, then had required another five-game match to hold off Canastota in the B-2 finals.
Knowing all this, Marcellus sought an early knockout — and got it.
By the time Mount Markham could settle itself, Marcellus led 18-3 in the opening game. At one point, with Rebecca Eddy serving, Marcellus reeled off 10 unanswered points, as the game eventually ended 25-9.
Marcellus also went up 19-10 in the second game, then had to withstand Mount Markham’s lone rally that tied the game 22-22. Once it got the serve back, Marcellus closed out the game 25-22, then breezed through the third game 25-14 to earn the sweep and the Class B title.
Fletcher picked up 18 kills, four aces and four blocks, often taking the floating returns of strong Marcellus serves and spiking them home. Kayla Howard and Kelly McInerney each had four kills, with Kassie Phillips adding three kills, five assists and two blocks. Jenn Daley backed up her 22 assists with five kills.
Now the Mustangs will return one more time to J-D, to compete Saturday in the Class B regional championships, a round-robin competition with Unatego (Section IV) and Beekmantown (Section VII).
