HERRIN -- The Marion High School volleyball team swept through the Herrin Invitational on Saturday to win the championship without losing a single game in five matches.
When you consider each game started at 4-4, the Lady Wildcats held their opponents to 10 points or less in six of their 10 games.
Marion's wins came against Galatia (25-11, 25-15), Steeleville (30-28, 25-11) and Woodlawn (25-12, 25-10) in pool play, then against Harrisburg (25-13, 25-17) in the semifinals and finally host Herrin (25-16, 25-14) in the championship.
Marion is now 21-3.
Abby Bayer, Kylie Plant and Morgan Dodd were Marion's representatives on the all-tournament team.
The first game of the title match was close until a kill by Plant and an ace from Kaylee Evans pushed Marion out to a three-point lead.
Consecutive kills by Jasa Bell made it 22-15, then Amelia Stotlar put down two of her own around Plant's fifth of the game for the nine-point win.
Marion dominated the second game, which included a 13-1 run. The Lady Cats scored eight straight with four aces by Plant in that stretch. Kenady Lober had a kill in that run and another during the 5-0 that followed to bring up match point.
Bayer put down the decisive kill to give her eight for the match. Plant finished with seven and Dodd had 16 digs. Haley Gooch had 14 assists.
Haley Van Horn had seven digs and Lydia Ellis had three kills in the semifinal victory.
During pool play, Makayla Nicholson had seven assists and Jordan Bundren served three aces against Galatia; Plant and Bayer both had eight kills in the win over Steeleville; and Evans had seven assists and Lober put down three kills and a block against Woodlawn.
Marion plays at home Tuesday night against Centralia.
