BUTLER TWP — Mars junior setter Julia Zimmer had a lot of chances to keep the Planets girls volleyball team's offense rolling Tuesday night at Butler High School.

Butler struggled to get into its offense, allowing Mars plenty of opportunities to swing away.

The Planets weren't perfect, but showed progress in a 25-12, 25-17, 25-15 Section 3-AAA win.

Zimmer, who handed out a game-high 24 assists, thought the extra work was good experience for a team working in some new hitters.

“We could run different plays to throw their defense off, so we could have more of an advantage to score points,” said Zimmer, who was a first-team all-section pick last season.

Mars coach Tami Caraway prepped Zimmer for her role by playing her in a 6-2 rotation as a freshman and 5-1 last season.

Sophomore hitter Sydney Amell, who made her first varsity start, tied for a match-high seven kills with teammate Cassie McKernan.

“(Having Zimmer) helps a lot,” Amell said. “She's a very good setter.”

Butler never got in sync.

The Golden Tornado conceded the match's first four points on errors — two attack, one service and one rotation — as Mars opened with a 9-2 run and never trailed.

“We had way too many errors early,” Golden Tornado coach Dan Mountain said. “They were serving really tough. We couldn't get the kills we needed and couldn't get a pass, really.”

Butler figured things out early in the second and third sets. The Golden Tornado went ahead 8-3 in the second set on a kill by Erin Fullerton.

Mars evened things up at 16 before two attack errors and a kill by Amell put the Planets (1-0, 1-0) ahead 19-16.

“It comes down to passing, we passed really well,” Caraway said. “They served tough, served smart and passed well. When you pass well, you can get away with errors.”

Mars, which had six kills in the first set, nearly doubled that total by recording 11 in the second. Seeing others hit successfully helped the Planets settle in.

“We have a bunch of sophomores on the team, so we are kind of getting used to everyone,” Amell said. “When one person gets a hit, we get energy from that.”

Butler opened the third set on a 4-1 run thanks to two kills from Paige Lambermont, who finished with four. Caitlyn Martin registered a team-high five kills for the Golden Tornado, Taylor Stein also had 29 digs for Butler (0-1, 0-1).

Mars tied the match at 4-4 after an attack error and went ahead on two McKernan service aces that hit the net and snuck over.

The Golden Tornado never got back into a flow. Mountain said he talked with his team about it after the game.

“If you do something very well, I'm going to expect it every time,” Mountain said. “I'd see someone do something well once and then messing up two or three more times after that. We need to work on consistency.”

That's something Zimmer hopes to find, too. She believes Mars (1-0, 1-0) took the first step toward that with the win.

“It helps a lot because we're going to have a positive attitude for our games coming up,” Zimmer said. “I think we're going to do good.”