Passing Marks in a Chemistry Examination : Preps: Marymount girls’ volleyball had to overcome internal problems before it made successful run for state championship.

Alvin Lamarre, coach of the Marymount High girls’ volleyball team that recently won the state Division III championship, is tired of hearing people say that his players are Cinderellas.

To him, the Marymount girls, who finished third in the Sunshine League to Los Angeles Marlborough and Notre Dame Academy, are all princesses.

But there were times that Lamarre felt the Sailors, divided by trivial differences and not playing well, were royal pains.

Marymount’s problems may have stemmed from high expectations for a squad that had seven seniors and five juniors.

Because most of the girls had played together for years, and ill feelings that had been harbored began to surface when the team started losing games it probably should not have.

Last year the Sailors were Sunshine League co-champions with Notre Dame Academy and thought they could win the title outright this year.

But Marymount lost two league matches to Marlborough and Notre Dame and also lost to Marlborough in the Southern Section 4-A Division championship match.

Lamarre, a UCLA graduate student in sports psychology, said that the lowest point of the season came when Marymount was playing at home against Notre Dame and trailed, 13-10, in the fifth game.

He said that a bad call by an official gave Notre Dame a point it shouldn’t have gotten and took away the momentum of his team, which went on to lose the match.

Dissension came to the fore. “There were a lot of feelings and emotions involved,” Lamarre said. “Someone was always stepping on someone else’s toes.”

He said that because the girls “know each other intimately and know each other’s faults,” they were getting on “each other’s nerves.”

“There were a few personality clashes, nothing major, but some petty jealousies,” he said. “But I always thought that this team had ability and that, if it ever started playing as a team, it would do well.”

Lamarre nor the team’s senior tri-captains, Alison Dalley, Tina Osterloh and Courtney Stanton, could think of a specific turning point.

Said Dalley: “I think we pulled ourselves out of it because we got frustrated with losing.”

Said Lamarre: “I think it was team cohesion. It seems they got the closest as the team really did well.”

In the Division III final, Marymount defeated Livermore Granada, 15-1, 8-15, 12-15, 15-3, 15-10, to win its first state championship. Stanton set a division record for most kills in a match with 28. Stanton, Dalley and Osterloh were voted to the all-division championship team.

Lamarre said defense was key in the title victory.

“We started playing as a team and started pulling for each other, which really helped our defense,” he said.

Lamarre also credited junior Meghan O’Rourke’s play in the title game. O’Rourke had spent the day before the match in bed because of the flu.

Lamarre used O’Rourke sparingly against Granada because he wanted her to conserve her energy.

“Meghan played really well. She blocked better than she usually had, which was the key to kills for us.”

Others who saw a lot of action for Marymount this season were seniors Alison Flynn, Darby Woods and Cathy Hull and junior Shannon Colwell. Lamarre said that the Sailors’ winning season taught him the value not only of the all-for-one, one-for-all philosophy, but also of the important role that simple enjoyment plays in sports.

He said that in some matches this season, the team “was trying so hard to win that they weren’t having fun at it. Once they started having fun, they played a lot better.”

Although Lamarre may not be enamored with the Cinderella label, Osterloh thinks it has some validity.

“When I first heard it mentioned that we were going to state, I didn’t think there was any way we would get to the finals,” she said.