It took six tries but finally on Tuesday night Cristie Liles registered her first opening night win as the volleyball coach at Marcus.

The past five seasons Arlington High handed Marcus an opening night loss. Tuesday night that wasn’t the case as the Lady Marauders won at home in four games 29-27, 27-25, 25-22, 25-22.

“It is kind of nice starting the season 1-0,” Liles said.

The Lady Marauders face a huge hurdle to a 2-0 season when they take on defending 5A state champion Amarillo at 5 p.m. Thursday at Arlington High. The match is special to Liles who is an Amarillo graduate and played volleyball there. The match is a precursor to the Duncanville Tournament which begins on Friday.

It was hard to tell that’s Tuesday’s match was the season-opener for both teams as each fought hard for every point and neither coach left the court with a timeout to spare. The intensity level of the match ratcheted up in the opening game when Arlington rallied back from a 24-17 deficit to tie things up at 24-24.

The Lady Marauders eventually won the game, but the tone for the rest of the night was set.

“The intensity level definitely escalated tonight,” Liles said. “I was worried if emotionally and mentally we could stay in it. That first game was full of so many highs and lows.”

Marcus dropped the next game after leading 25-24. The Lady Colts tied things up on a Marcus hitting error then knocked down back-to-back kills to win the game. The Lady Marauders gave Arlington 14 of its 22 points in the third game but still found a way to win.

“We had to fight more than Arlington tonight,” Liles said. “We were making a lot of errors and just making it hard to win. We had good effort but we were making it hard on ourselves.”

“I don’t know if it was first game jitters or what? But if we can come back from making those unforced errors in the first match of the season, then hopefully we will settle in and do a much better job the rest of the way.”

Marcus seemed to break Arlington’s will in the fourth game when Marcus senior middle blocker Emily Maher ended an extended rally with kill from the back line that gave the Lady Marauders at 19-13. Maher (14 kills, 11 blocks) celebrated the shot by leaping up and down in her own emotional way.

“Tonight was awesome,” Maher said. “We came together as a team tonight. Everyone was helping out. It was just an awesome feeling winning that point. It just seemed they shutdown after that point.”

Arlington didn’t give up completely as they closed to within 22-20 and kept within striking distance at two points But Marcus answered with two kills by Lyndi Johnson, who led the team with 19 kills, and a match-winning kill by Maher.

Kaleigh Wright finished with 31 digs and Jenna Miller registered 33 assists.

“Tonight’s match felt like a district championship match,” Maher said.