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Warren outlasts Marietta in five-set thriller

By Jordan Holland 5 min read

VINCENT -- After rallying for a thrilling five-set victory over rival Marietta on Tuesday, Warren head coach Kaitlyn Cremeans had trouble locating her team.

"They all just took off," Cremeans laughed. "After matches, we usually stand there and huddle. I give a little speech to break it down, win or lose. They all sprinted in the locker room and I'm like 'Where'd they all go?'"

Cremeans headed toward the locker room. Sure enough, her players were there to surprise her with a Gatorade bath.

"I go in there, and there’s a lovely bucket waiting on me," the first-year head coach said. "Our AD (mopped it up) for them. That was nice of him to do that."

It was a well-deserved celebration for the Warriors, who avenged a four-set loss to the Tigers just 12 days ago. Warren jumped all over the visitors 25-13 in the first set before dropping the next two 25-18 and 25-20. The Warriors dug deep for a 25-17 triumph in the fourth set before dominating the fifth set 15-5 to come out victorious.

"Came off a tough loss last time we played them," Cremeans recalled. "We had to do some rebuilding. They needed to build some confidence, knowing that they can kind of hang and win and dominate in those tougher matches. Not only is it a rival, but another tough game for them.

In the loss to Marietta earlier this month, Cremeans felt her team let some negative plays get to their heads. One miscue would lead to another, and it would snowball from there.

"We worked on a drill in practice, basically going on runs early, building momentum early, and helping that continue throughout the entire set that we’re playing, and then continue through the future sets the whole time," Cremeans said. "Did really well the first set, kept mentality up, but you saw us kind of slide the next two. Good recovery in the fourth and fifth. They turned it around, and it was a great way to ultimately close out the game."

Marietta took the first point of the final set, but Warren answered with the next six to build an early cushion. Rae Morgenstern's ace stretched the lead to 10-3. Elayna Greenwalt followed with a pair of kills before serving back-to-back aces to make it 14-4. Her younger sister, Taylor, closed it out with a kill to end the match.

Elayna Greenwalt posted a match-high 28 kills while Taylor Greenwalt added 23. Freshman outside hitter Imagin Daly also got a shoutout from her coach.

"The Greenwalts did their thing," Cremeans said. "Imagin was playing JV to begin the season. We pulled her up. For being a freshman, she did what she needed to do tonight. She's another one who struggles mentally, but she stayed out of her head well. She responded well. Recovering well. Had some nice kills tonight. Had some nice plays. Very proud of her. She stepped up to the plate."

Marietta (11-3) was without the services of senior Adele McCombs, who suffered an injury during pregame warmups. After suffering a demoralizing 25-13 loss in the first set, the Tigers got down 5-0 in the second set as things weren't looking good for the orange and black.

However, head coach Ron Kidder's squad righted the ship as a kill by Maevry McCombs and an ace by Addie Graham knotted it up at 11-all. An attack error by Warren gave MHS its first lead of the night at 14-13, and later Lylah Bradford's ace made it 20-15 and prompted a Warren timeout. Rylee Wilkinson put the finishing touches on the set with a kill to even things up at 1-apiece.

The Tigers carried that momentum into the third set, which Wilkinson again capped with a kill, as Warren found itself in a 2-1 hole.

Going into the fourth set, the Warriors focused on staying mentally tough and bouncing back from a couple sets that got away from them. Trailing 5-2 early, Taylor Greenwalt had three kills to help put Warren up 7-6, a lead the home team maintained the remainder of the set. Charleigh Hoff's ace made it 12-6 to cap a 10-2 WHS run. Three kills by Elayna Greenwalt helped stretch the lead from 16-12 to 20-12 before Annebelle Moore's block made it 24-15. The Tigers clung to life momentarily with an ace by Clara Becker, but Hoff's kill closed it out to force a fifth and final game.

"I told them, 'What a way to finish. What a way to end. We let some things get to us, but look at your response to that.' We talked about controlling our side. You can’t control what’s going to happen on their side. It’s completely out of our hands, but you can control what’s happening over here. We rolled with that in the fourth and fifth set, and they just dominated. They responded. They did what they needed to do, and was very, very proud of them today," Cremeans said.

Warren improved to 8-2 with Fort Frye set to visit Thursday.

"Five-set thriller at the end of the day, and those are what it’s made of," Cremeans said. "Went on a good run, built a lot of momentum, struggled but recovered well, and that was that was the goal at the end of the day. We’re building the team that’s going to go play in the tournament. We’re building to hopefully find this consistently to then plug it into the tournament matches and make it as far as we can there."

Contact Jordan Holland at jholland@mariettatimes.com.

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