The Warren Area High School girls volleyball team will try to win their first state playoff game since 2018, and will host their second state game in the last two years.

Tuesday will feature the AAA District 10 champion Warren Dragons facing off against the Mars Fightin’ Planets (District 7, No. 3 seed) at Warren Area High School at 6 p.m.

“We are preparing for Mars by reviewing the video we can find on them, and looking at their strengths and for any weaknesses,” Dragons head coach Mike Dolan stated. “They are a very physical team with some good height and like us, they have one returning all-state player in Cecilia Christy. She’s a very good middle attacker that we will have to be prepared to defend. We’re anticipating a high-level match with a team that runs a clean offense with effective attacking from all across the net. The goal is to serve tough to keep them out of system as much as possible, and for our terrific back row players to pass well so we can run our offense the way we like — getting the ball to our outstanding hitters.”

Dolan also believes that the atmosphere of a home playoff game will boost the Dragons.

“We love that we have home court advantage,” Dolan said. “We’re really hoping to pack the gym with the community members and flannel panel who have been so great in supporting us all season! If we can feed off the energy of a great crowd, it will be really helpful as any advantage we can get at this level will be more than welcomed.”

“To win, we will have to be as clean in our contacts as possible, and stay on the attack, looking for openings to exploit when we can,” Dolan added. “There are only 16 AAA teams remaining in the state, so minimizing mistakes will be key. In our last state playoff game in 2023, we were dealing with some illnesses but still played really well against a very good team in North Catholic. The goal is to play well again and keep improving as we have been so that we continue to play our best volleyball at this time of the season. If we do that and give it our best shot, we like our chances!”