Marietta players celebrate after clinching a five-set victory over rival Warren Saturday at Warrior Coliseum in Vincent. (Photo by Jordan Holland)

VINCENT — Entering the season, there was a lot of unknown surrounding the Marietta High volleyball team.

The Tigers graduated six starters who helped the program capture back-to-back district titles, leaving a lot of question marks surrounding this year’s squad.

One thing that can’t be called into question for Marietta is effort. Heart, grit, determination — those are some others. All those qualities were on full display during the Tigers’ five-set win over rival Warren Saturday at Warrior Coliseum.

“A lot of heart and desire,” said Marietta head coach Ron Kidder. “I’m telling you what, I don’t get choked up much, but these kids have put a lot of hard work in. Counted out in the beginning. Played some tough games. These kids just believe and haven’t given up. They come to practice every day, determined to keep getting better and better and better. Great group of girls to be around.”

The Warriors, who won 11 of their first 12 matches to start the season and are ranked third in Division IV, took the first set 25-23 but watched Marietta take three of the next four by scores of 27-25, 21-25, 25-21 and 15-13. Each and every set was a nail-biter.

Warren’s Elayna Greenwalt (14) spikes the ball past the block attempt by Marietta’s Lindsay Evans (9) and Adele McCombs during Saturday’s match at Warrior Coliseum in Vincent. (Photo by Jordan Holland)

“Momentum plays a really big part in our game, too,” said Maevry McCombs, who led the Tigers with 16 kills. “Every single time we wouldn’t get the ball back, we would just have so much momentum built up from the good plays that it just really helped us.”

Rylee Wilkinson added nine kills while Adele McCombs and Lindsay Evans tallied seven apiece. Adele McCombs and Ava Prim served four aces each.

“I think that the biggest key was our serving and passing,” said Haley Wilkinson, one of two seniors on Marietta’s roster. “We definitely picked it up. Every time we had a timeout or between sets, we were just saying, ‘fight for every point, fight for this team, fight for each other.'”

Down 2-1 in the match, the Tigers trailed 18-17 in the fourth set. After Addie Graham assisted Maevry McCombs on a kill to tie it up, Prim served back-to-back aces to give Marietta some cushion. It was 23-19 after Maevry McCombs and Rylee Wilkinson teamed up for a block, and the Tigers held on from there to force a fifth and final set.

“It was a battle. We knew it was going to be,” Kidder said. “We planned for it, scouted, and then they had to execute, and they did. When they lost, they never quit. Got the next one. Lost. Never quit. Come back and get the fifth one.”

Marietta’s Adele McCombs (12) and Lindsay Evans (9) go up to block the spike attempt by Warren’s Elayna Greenwalt (14) during Saturday’s match at Warrior Coliseum in Vincent. (Photo by Jordan Holland)

Marietta built a 4-0 lead to start the fifth and eventually led 8-3, but Warren made up ground and had it tied at 9-all thanks to consecutive kills by Elayna Greenwalt. A third straight kill by Greenwalt put the Warriors up, but a kill by Maevry McCombs and ace by her sister Adele put the Tigers back on top. Marietta went up two on a heads-up tip by Prim, but Greenwalt and her younger sister Taylor registered back-to-back kills to knot it up again at 12-12. It was 13-all when a service error put the Tigers up one, and the final play of the game was a kill by Rylee Wilkinson to nail it down.

“We never give up,” Kidder said. “If you’re going to beat us, you’re going to have to take us down. We learned that from the beginning of the year when we were up two on a team and let them win the next three. We learned. We’ve got to keep fighting.”

Elayna Greenwalt posted a match-high 35 kills while teammates Taylor Greenwalt and Sydney Starcher added 15 and 14 kills, respectively. Setter Mya Stemple consistently fed the trio accurate and on-time passes.

“Warren’s got an excellent team,” Kidder said. “They’ve got three kids who can absolutely pound the crap out of the ball. Great kids. Great families. We’ve got a lot of respect for them.”

Both teams are back at it on Tuesday — the Tigers at Point Pleasant and the Warriors at Fort Frye.

Marietta is hoping this win over Warren is the start of something special.

“I think that we can really use this as momentum going on this season and just kind of use this to push us to fight for every game and fight for each other,” Haley Wilkinson said.

Maevry McCombs added, “This meant so much to us. We’ve been looking forward to this game since this season started. We knew that if we can pull this off, then we can really pull off any other game we have this season.”

Contact Jordan Holland at jholland@mariettatimes.com.