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Lady Marauders eliminated by Maryvale

Dunkirk Lady Marauders Jessica Beehler (3) and Gina Salerno (10) await a serve by Maryvale during Wednesday’s playoff game at Dunkirk High School. OBSERVER Photo by Braden Carmen.

The Dunkirk Lady Marauders saw their season come to an end in the first round of the Section VI, Class B1 girls volleyball playoffs on Wednesday with a four-set loss to the Maryvale Flyers at Dunkirk High School. The scores were 25-15, 21-25, 25-9 and 25-23.

Dunkirk (9-12, 7-seed) had its season as a whole epitomized in Wednesday’s loss. At times, the Lady Marauders played extremely well, like a stretch in the second set of Wednesday’s game when Dunkirk, tied with Maryvale at 11-all, rattled off seven out of the next eight points to take a lead it would not surrender the rest of the set. But on the flip-side, Dunkirk also had stretches this season where the talented Lady Marauders played far below the athletic talent of the girls on the court, like in the third set of Wednesday’s game, where Maryvale (4-13, 10-seed) won the third set by a score of 25-9, featuring a run of 10 out of 11 points scored against the Lady Marauders. Dunkirk either held the lead or was within four points during the entirety of the second and fourth sets on Wednesday.

“The difference between those two sets and the rest is that the team was supporting each other. They were working together. They were lifting each other up,” said Dunkirk coach Kate Stahlman. “I noticed through the other sets that they were being hard on each other. You could see the competitive side of people come out, but they weren’t working together as much as they were before.”

Dunkirk was outscored by a total of 50-24 in the first and third sets. Stahlman believed that her team’s mindset was the biggest difference between the sets that Dunkirk remained close in and the ones that got away from the Lady Marauders.

“The season as a whole, that has been our biggest downfall, not being in the right mindset,” said Stahlman. “Whether that’s working together as a team, or not beating themselves up after they make a mistake, or just looking at every point as a chance to win the game. … The times when they did come together and work as a team, that’s when they played to their full potential. You could tell the difference between the two (scenarios).”

Another big difference on the court on Wednesday was the strength of Maryvale’s strongest hitters. Dunkirk had no answer returning the strength of Maryvale’s hits, while the Flyers were able to keep Dunkirk’s biggest hitters in check.

“They have a couple of really strong hitters,” said Stahlman of Maryvale. “One of their really strong hitters, we just couldn’t seem to get a block on, and they were blocking our strongest hitters, too. They were on it when it comes to that.”

Wednesday was a sour note to end on for the Lady Marauders, who were led by senior co-captains Jessica Beehler and Amari Carter, on a team with seniors making up more than half of the roster. However, Stahlman believes her team learned a lot about themselves moving forward into other sports seasons and beyond.

“Being able to come back after a loss and still have that optimism that each game is a new game,” said Stahlman, who said resiliency was her biggest takeaway from her first season as a varsity head coach. “As a coach, if they win, they win. If they lose, they lose. But being a team player, you need to have resilience. You need to learn to get yourself up and work together with others — to give a 100 percent effort, not with just any sport, but in life. Even when we end up losing, those are skills they need to know moving forward.”

Twitter: @bradencarmen

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