Birmingham Marian's Rachel Charles during practice, Wednesday, November 18, 2009.

BLOOMFIELD HILLS — Since it’s the weekend of the high school football semifinals, it’s probably appropriate that Birmingham Marian volleyball coach Irick Gardner uses a football analogy to describe a big reason why his team is in the volleyball semifinals.

In describing how important a libero is to a volleyball team, Gardner compared it to how important an offensive line is to a football team.

“If you don’t have a line, you can’t throw the ball,” Gardner said. “Our quarterback is the setter, our are receivers are the hitters, but our line is the passers. If we don’t have that line, the setter will struggle. If the setter struggles, than the hitters will struggle. It all starts with that.”

Thus, it’s a big reason why the Mustangs are 76-2 and ranked No. 1 in Class A entering a 5:30 p.m. state semifinal today in Battle Creek, where they’ll face rival Farmington Hills Mercy.

Other than Jenna Coates at Clarkston, there arguably isn’t a better passer/digger in the state than Marian senior libero Rachel Charles.

An all-state player the last two years for the Mustangs, it’s a lock that Charles is heading for a third straight year on the all-state team, given she finished second in the Miss Volleyball voting, just behind senior teammate Alexandra Cocklin.

Normally, the voting is dominated by outside hitters. But it speaks volumes to the player Charles is that she finished so high in the voting as a libero.

“They always tend to favor hitters,” Charles said. “That’s quite shocking a libero can finish that high.”

Any kill attempts Mercy has today will somehow have to get past Charles, who has developed an amazing knack for anticipating where the ball is going to go, while at the same time passing the ball softly to a teammate so the offense can be ignited.

Surprisingly, Charles she didn’t start playing the position until her eighth grade year while playing club ball.

Her coach on that team was Gardner, who saw something in her to move her from an outside hitter and a setter to libero.

“I figured she was coming here and I knew we needed one,” Gardner said. “She probably wasn’t going to hit here — although she probably could now, because she grew.”

But since Marian has Cocklin and others to hammer the ball down to the floor, Charles sticks with the preventing kills part of the game, something she has taken a liking too.

“At first, it was kind of hard to get used to just playing back row,” Charles said. “But now I love it.”

Charles could’ve pursued more Division I college offers, but instead decided to focus more on the academic side of things by accepting an offer to play at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania.

At Lehigh, Charles will play volleyball and start pursuing a career in sports medicine.

When she gets to Lehigh next year, Charles wants to say she played on a state championship team at Marian.

Charles and the other Marian seniors have felt the pain of losing in the state final the last two years, and hope to advance to and win the state final this time.

If Marian wins today, it’ll play either Portage Central or Livonia Churchill in the state championship match at 2 p.m. on Saturday.

“We just can’t psych ourselves out,” Charles said. “Sophomore year, we had nothing to lose, because we were the underdog coming in throughout the whole tournament. It was a good experience. Last year, it was just a mental thing, because we lost the year before. This year, because we’ve had such a great season, we just have to stay focused.”



E-mail Keith Dunlap at keith.dunlap@oakpress.com