Marcus volleyball coach Cristie Liles can safely say her team has never started a season like this. 

The Marauders kicked off the 2007 campaign with a stellar 29-27, 25-27, 25-22, 25-22 win over a tough Arlington team on Tuesday. The win was Marcus’ first over Arlington to start a season since Liles took over the program six seasons ago. 

“We’ve started the last five seasons the exact same way, with a loss to Arlington,” Liles said. “But this time we finally got one over on them. I literally thought it was a playoff game because it was such a slugfest. I’m still not sure how much fun it was to coach, but I bet it was real exciting to sit and watch.” 

The team played Amarillo on Thursday, but no scores were available as of press time. Marcus was scheduled to face Lubbock Coronado in the first round of the Duncanville Tournament on Friday. Last year, the team lost just two games in the same tournament. 

It may be looking like the same or better if they play like they did against Arlington. 

Lyndi Johnson finished with 19 kills, two aces and 23 digs. Emily Maher posted 11 blocks, 14 kills and two aces. Jenna Miller had 35 assists and Brittany DeWeese had eight kills and six blocks. 

“We had 17 blocks with just our middles alone,” Liles said. “They were relaxed and they were confident whereas most of the time they’d look like deer in the headlights.” 

Game 1 was an indication that Arlington was going to have a tough night ahead of them. Marcus led 24-18 when Arlington battled back with seven points in a row. However, Marcus always seemed to come up with the clutch play and pulled away for the 27-27 win. After a sluggish start in Game 2, the girls came out on fire in Game 3 to really set the stage for the rest of the match. 

“I never felt like this was in the bag at any point, especially with this being the first game of the year because you know the unforced errors are going to be there,” Liles said. “But we did a great job.”

If anything, Liles hinted that she’s looking for this one game to really set the tempo for a team that just last year got back into the playoff picture. Marcus easily has one of the more loaded rosters in their district and can match muscle and finesse with anyone in the Metroplex.

“I think this will be an emotional pick me up because they’ve wanted to win this,” Liles said. “This is a great feeling for all of us. 

The Marauders return nine – seven of which were starters – from last year’s district championship team. Marcus finished with a 24-15 record in 2006, which included rattling off eight-straight league wins and leapfrogging both Hebron and Coppell in the final two games of the regular season to win district.

The expectations are much higher this year with the increase in experience; something they hope will not only help them in district but can also be parlayed into a much longer playoff run.

“This is the most experienced team I’ve had coming back since I’ve been at Marcus,” Liles said. “I’ve had two or three in other years, but not nine girls returning and seven of them being starters.”