Monrovia volleyball captures signature win over Morgan County rival Martinsville

MONROVIA, Ind. — When Monrovia is pit against its larger Morgan County rivals like Martinsville and Mooresville, there's often extra motivation for the Bulldogs to get the better of the two.

While it's never easy for the smaller Monrovia to notch wins over its counterparts, Thursday allowed the Bulldogs' volleyball team to try its hand, at home, against the Artesians.

It took four sets to decide the winner, but it was Monrovia who walked away with the upper hand, winning 3-1 with set scores of 25-13, 25-23, 25-15 and 25-14 for its first win over Martinsville under head coach Laura Rahn.

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"This is super good, especially with Plainfield coming up," Rahn said. "We've had a couple good runs here, looking good and starting to gel better together. We're still working out a lot of kinks, but our offense is picking up the pace and it's working for us."

Martinsville coach Kelsey Patrick felt defense played a major factor in the final result.

"Monrovia has a great swinging team, so they definitely outnumbered us in kills tonight," Patrick said. "We're still fine tuning our new defense in the back row with Molly (Urban). I think that was where we took a big hit tonight was playing solid defense and being able to continue to pursue every ball."

By the numbers

Up until Thursday, Martinsville had controlled the series with the Bulldogs 8-1 since 2008. The last time Monrovia defeated the Artesians was in 2018. None of the team's current members were in high school yet.

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So, for the smaller Monrovia to notch a win over its Class 4A counterpart is a big deal. Not only for Rahn, who gets to pencil her first coaching win over Martinsville, but for this cast of Bulldogs who've seen a large deal of success over the last four years.

"That's actually on our checklist," Rahn said. "We have a checklist of goals and beat Martinsville, checking it off this year. We're excited."

Key plays

The key set of plays was really more of a surge. After the Bulldogs notched a 25-13 victory in the first set, the two teams were in a competitive battle in the second, where the two traded the lead until things were tied up at 20. The Artesians finished the set with a 25-23 win to tie the match at one apiece.

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Monrovia's explosive start to the third set changed everything. Led by Madison McCubbins, the Bulldogs lit up the scoreboard with a 15-3 run to dim the momentum Martinsville gained in the second. While the Artesians did have an impressive rally towards the end of the set, the Bulldogs big lead proved too difficult to overcome.

"I just think the girls realized they messed up and needed to fix it fast," Rahn said. "(They had to) Squash any kind of excitement they (Martinsville) had."

What it means

The victory serves as a signature one for Monrovia. Getting wins over Class 4A programs is hard to come by, especially with a limited number of them on the schedule. This one will should work as a booster as the team looks ahead to Plainfield, who notched its own win over the Artesians earlier this week, on Aug. 31.

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As for Martinsville the loss signifies the early growing pains of a team still trying to discover a new identity with both a new coach and new skills players. There's no shame in losing to an established team like the Bulldogs, especially early on. The game should serve as another learning experience for a young team looking to establish chemistry.

"I feel like we've definitely made improvements in certain areas (since the start of the season)," Patrick said. "The team's come a long with communication and keeping each other levelheaded out on the court."

Looking ahead

The Artesians will be back in action on Tuesday as they're set to play Mid-State Conference rival Greenwood before dates with Columbus North on Sept. 1 and a trip to the Avon Invite on Sept. 3. Monrovia returns to play on Monday, facing off against South Putnam with the Quakers following on Wednesday and Indian Creek on Sept. 1.

Contact reporter Devin Voss at dvoss@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter at @DevinVoss23.

This article originally appeared on The Reporter Times: Monrovia volleyball scores first win over Martinsville since 2018