Marion volleyball fighting for playoff position

By Dennis Brunson

hssr.com Associate Editor

Marion – The Marion High School volleyball team has pretty much wrapped up a berth in the South Carolina High School League AA state playoffs. Now it’s just a matter of the seed the Swamp Foxes finish with out of Region 7.

Barring a major collapse by Atlantic Collegiate Academy or East Clarendon coming down the stretch, Marion will be doing battle with Lake City and Manning for third through fifth in the region. The top five teams make the playoffs.

The Swamp Foxes had a 7-5 overall record and a 6-4 region mark through October 3. They are part of a new region that came about due to reclassification. While they were region mates with Mullins and Kingstree last season, all of the others are newcomers.

“We have new schools in our region this year who are giving us some good competition,” said head coach Camilla Jones, who led Marion to an 8-8 overall record and a 4-4 region mark that ended with a loss to Oceanside Collegiate Academy in the first round of the playoffs. “My motivation to the team is practice hard, play hard and we will have positive results.”

The Swamp Foxes have their entire starting lineup back from last season. They are led by Jashaya Page, who was an All-Region selection last year. The senior outside hitter has only gotten better, according to Jones.

“Jashaya has improved the most and motivates the other players to compete” she said.

The other returning starters are junior middle blocker Sheteria Bethea, junior setter Ayoni Malloy, sophomore setter Kynnedi Jenkins, senior middle hitter Kaitlyn Swinton and junior defensive specialist Maliyah Williams. 

The rest of the roster includes junior outside hitter Kristin Shaw, sophomore outside hitter/middle blocker Nevaeh Shaw, junior middle blocker Brooklyn Gamble, freshman outside hitter Yani Thomas and senior middle hitter Devyn Graham.

The Swamp Foxes’ final two region matches are on the road. They play Manning on October 15 and East Clarendon on October 17.

MARION FOOTBALL STARTS 0-2 IN REGION

After winning four consecutive football region titles, a fifth straight won’t be happening for Marion this year. Marion is 0-3 after losing to Alantic Collegiate 27-0 on October 4.

The Swamp Foxes, who were 34-8 over the last four years, are now 1-6 on the season. They lost to Kingstree 52-16 in their region opener and then fell to Marion County rival Mullins 20-6 in the 17th Annual Anderson Brothers Bank Tobacco Bowl.

The loss to ACA came just four days after the loss to Mullins. The game was played on Monday, September 30, because of Hurricane Helene.

Marion’s lone touchdown came on a 3-yard touchdown reception by Tahj Lathon. Senior Tyrice Davis had a big completion to junior Geo Warren to set up the scoring play.

After a bye week on October 11, the Swamp Foxes close out region play with a road game against Lake City on October 18 and home contests against Manning and East Clarendon on October 25 and November 1, respectively.

Marion’s only victory was an 8-7 contest against Latta. The touchdown came when the Swamp Foxes partially blocked a punt and it was picked up and returned 49 yards for a score by sophomore Ka’Mari Watson. Freshman Malachi Graham threw to senior Trenaeus Gurley for the 2-point conversion.

The defense was led by senior Dramere Pearson with 13 tackles and two tackles for loss and senior Jaquan Ritter with 10 tackles and two TFLs. Sophomore Brennen Wilson had an interception.