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John Marshall Rolls Wheeling Park

JM?wins in consecutive sets

Photo by Cody Tomer John Marshall’s Maddy Mayle prepares to serve during a 19-point scoring streak during Tuesday’s match at Wheeling Park.

WHEELING–Success on the volleyball court begins with communication and that was the difference on Tuesday.

John Marshall looked like a well-oiled machine as it rolled to a sweep of host Wheeling Park by scores of 25-13, 25-2, 25-13.

The Monarchs were talking on every play, setting up passes for each other and looked like the team that made the trip to the state tournament a season ago.

“If they are communicating and talking, then they are playing their best game,” John Marshall coach Chelsea Eikleberry said. “They are moving and getting to the ball.

“Nothing is dropping and they are busting their butts. I stress that in practice big time and they are showing that in games. When they do, we win.”

On the other end of the floor, the Patriots seemed to lack the communication that head coach Kristen Gaudino wanted to see.

“My message to the team after the match was we can’t win if we don’t communicate,” Gaudino said. ”

(Tuesday), our main issues were communicating, hesitation to the ball and blocking. We spoke in the locker room about how we can change this communication issue and how we can develop communication skills on the court.”

Maddy Mayle had a huge outing for the Monarchs. John Marshall jumped out to a fast 5-2 edge in the first set and quickly opened the lead to 17-8 as Mayle stepped behind the service line and provided four strong serves, which led to four straight points for her squad, creating a 22-8 cushion. Megan Denning eventually delivered the game-winning point to put John Marshall ahead 1-0.

“John Marshall communicates the entire time they are on the court and my girls said that,” Gaudino said. “They didn’t do anything spectacular offensively but they just communicate every time and my girls pointed that out.”

The Monarchs went up 5-2 early in the second set before Mayle powered an astounding 19-point scoring streak, aided by incredible teamwork, to give John Marshall a convincing 25-2 victory.

“Maddy is an all around player,” Eikleberry said. “She wants to play in the back row but I told her we need her in the front row. She is aggressive, she executes, swings hard and her blocks are wonderful. She hasn’t had a chance to serve much this year but they are perfect every time she does serve. She is just a great player.

“Every game, the girls look at her because she is the leader and is the one we expect to have kills. She definitely keeps the momentum up and if she is on, then the rest of our team is too.”

After finishing the second set with 19 consecutive points, the Monarchs supplied the first six points of the third set behind excellent serving from Lauren Garcia. Of course, Mayle got into the action again with a four-point serving streak to extend the lead to 15-4.

Wheeling Park (2-10) continued to battle as Mahayla McCroskey reeled off three points in a row to cut the deficit to 23-11 but John Marshall finished strong to earn the sweep.

“Things got better in the third set,” Gaudino said. “I brought in freshman Ayna Ritz to set and I thought things went pretty smoothly and the girls felt better about the flow of the game.”

The Monarchs (8-1) lost their perfect season last week in a tough road loss at University but Eikleberry believes it came at the right time.

“We are getting better game after game,” she said. “I don’t think we are at our best yet but we had a loss last week and I think it opened their eyes. It showed them that they aren’t the best and we still have work to do and things to improve on.

“The loss came at a perfect time. I’m glad it came early in the season and not at the end. We played really well but we also had a match where we didn’t play so great and that got them down. As long as we are up, communicating with positive attitudes and help each other out, we are good.”

Mayle paced the Monarchs with five aces, five kills and three blocks. Emily Harr accounted for seven kills, Lauren Rose delivered five kills, Garcia dished out 14 assists and Lydia Knutsen added four digs.

McCroskey gathered 12 digs for the Patriots, Franko handed out six assists, Rachel Simon garnered five kills, Ateria Walker generated four kills and Ritz added four assists.

“We love playing John Marshall,” Gaudino said. “I am friends with their head coach and we know it’s always a challenge. You get to see how good you are when John Marshall comes to play.”

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