Marlboro Girls Volleyball win Two, Improve to 5-1

The Marlboro High School girls volleyball team won two matches over the past two days, improving their record for the season 5-1. They beat Wall on Monday two games to one and swept Freehold Boro yesterday.

Monday’s game against Wall (3-2 through Monday’s games) looked like it was going to be sweep after a 25-18 first game victory for the Mustangs. But Marlboro lost the second game 25-20.

“It was a scary [game],” McNamara said. “We should have been a lot better. We gave up a lot of points we shouldn’t have given up. We had out serves, balls dropping and we’re not that team. We got to clean it up if we want to do anything significant.”

Jet Manzi led the Mustangs with seven aces, 11 kills, one block, and 12 assists.

They turned it around in the third game however, using some timely kills and renewed energy to squeak out the game 25-22, and ultimately the match.

Today’s domination of Boro (0-5 after Tuesday’s games) was the kind of match Marlboro was looking for yesterday. They won the first game 25-11 in approximately 19 minutes, and never fell behind in the second. The team pulled away 25-19 for the sweep.

Afterwards, McNamara was happy with the win, but not the way the second game was played.

“It’s a nice victory, a confidence builder,” McNamara said. “[But], that second game we kind of fell apart. We should be finishing matches [stronger], we’re more talented.”

Manzi again led Marlboro today with three aces, five kills, one block, and 12 assists.

Looking forward, the Mustangs continue this busy week playing tomorrow at Brick Memorial and Thursday at home against Jackson Liberty. McNamara’s keys to future success are similar to the old saying about how offense sells tickets but defense wins championships.

“We’re working on our blocking and defense. If you don’t have a defense you’re not going to win any games. We’re really concentrating on defense and as a team communicating [well].”