'Heckuva run': Janelle Swisher serve streak, assist record fuel Marlington volleyball win

NILES — Janelle Swisher's 36 assists to break Marlington High School volleyball team records wasn't the senior setter's only impressive feat Wednesday.

In the second game of a three-game sweep of Edgewood in the Division II district semifinals at Niles McKinley High School, Swisher served 10 consecutive points for an 11-3 lead.

"Not that I remember," Swisher said after being asked if she had ever made 10 straight serves. "Not in this big of a game."

Senior Chelsea Evanich said, "That is a heckuva run. Just to be able to go 10 points in a row in a district semifinal without making an error, that is super impressive."

Marlington won by scores of 25-15, 25-11 and 25-15.

"We definitely come in with a confident mindset," said Swisher, who will play at Malone next year. "It's been super intense since the summer."

Swisher, who finished with a season-high 23 points, knew she was two assists away from breaking the school's season record of 643.

The record is now 677.

"I knew I was close," Swisher said. "I was just super excited and I knew if I gave it to the right people, they were going to execute it.

"I give a lot of credit [for the record] to my DSs."

Marlington coach Stephanie Tortola said Swisher also has the career record for assists.

Saturday in the district final, the Dukes (21-3), winners of the Eastern Buckeye Conference with a 10-0 record, will play Jefferson (21-3), winners of the Chagrin Valley Lake Division with an 11-0 record.

The Falcons advanced to the district championship with a four-game win over Hubbard (25-16, 25-17, 14-25, 25-17).

Marlington is aiming for its second straight trip to the regional. Last year, the Dukes defeated Girard for the district title when the match was played at Jefferson High School.

Wednesday's match was a rematch of the 2022 district semifinal.

In the sweep, junior Layne Graffice made 16 kills and freshman Danica Sarchione made 11.

"It's really nice to see a freshman come through, because sometimes you don't know what they are going to give you," Tortola said. "They've never been in the tournament before.

"She said she felt confidence. She said she wasn't that nervous and it really showed."

Junior Jacsyn Hilliard made 19 digs.

Tortola has most of last year's players back from last year's regional appearance at Stow.

"Experience is huge," Tortola said, adding that four of her players have "tournament experiences in the last two years — that's really going to help."

"We've been in these [big] games and emotions do run high," she said. "That's part of the game, we're all talented at this point.

"But it is about the mental part of the game and being able to stay focused, stay driven."

She said the message to her players has been: "It's the end of the season, I know every girl is tired, every girl has put so much into this.'

"A lot of our girls play club [volleyball] and they were playing until July and we had already started pretty hard in May. They are tired but it is about starting focused, staying driven, and just creating these memories."

Evanich says she and her fellow seniors know that going forward any tournament match could be the final as a varsity player.

"I think that nerves were kind of going around before the game," Evanich said. "I think we were confident going in, but just knowing the pressure, that this could be our last game ‚— we have to show up every game.

"There's no more room for just having a bad night," she said. "Once the game got started , we got the energy going and it was good.

"The back row played so good and Janelle's sets were perfect, which just allows us offensively to just swing and swing and swing.

"I think that was the game we've tipped the least in and I think that's really impressive at this point in the season. Against better teams, we were able to swing."

Tortola said Saturday's match will be Marlington's first against Jefferson.

"We don't play a lot of schools east of us," she said. "So its kinda hard for us to gauge where we're at — even the teams that they play, we don't know."

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Marlington High School volleyball advances to OHSAA district final