NEW CASTLE — Tuesday’s first match of Class 4A Sectional 9 at Chrysler Fieldhouse was what most would expect.
State-ranked Mt. Vernon took care of winless Anderson quickly and moved on to Saturday’s semifinal.
Mt. Vernon, ranked No. 6 in the state by MaxPreps and No. 7 in the Class 4A Z-Ratings, won 3-0 by set scores of 25-5, 25-6, 25-11. The Marauders are 26-4 and will play in an 11 a.m. semifinal game Saturday against Pendleton Heights. Anderson finished its season 0-21.
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Mt. Vernon coach Eric Bulmahn got a chance to play all 14 players that were available. His starters played the first set. Then, they were mixed in with reserves the rest of the match.
“I saw some kids that were nervous when I put them in, but that’s our future,” Bulmahn said. “Some of them looked scared to death, but they got better as the match went on.
“This was a match where it could have been hard to keep the energy up and have a tendency to get lazy, but we were able to work on defensive transition, hit our service zones and run our combination plays.”
The Marauders had 26 service aces, including eight by junior Claire Ertel. Lillie Perdue had five.
Ertel served the final 17 points of the first set, which included seven of her aces. Cecilia Bulmahn had a team-high eight kills on just 11 attempts, with no errors. Ertel had seven kills.
Freshman Tatum Fitzgerald had five kills and Olivia Yeley added four. Macy Lyons was part of two blocks.
Sophomore setter Rylee Ugen had a career-high 20 assists.
“Everyone got to see the court and that gets everyone more pumped up and I feel like this gave us a chance to know the gym more,” Yeley said, noting the arena setting of Chrysler Fieldhouse. “It’s really hard to get to know the gym because it’s a different setting (than most high school gyms).”
After Ertel served the Marauders to a first-set victory, it was more of the same in the final two sets.
Sophomore Meredith Hohnbaum finished things off with her serve. She had aces in three of her last four attempts. The set ended on a kill from Cecilia Bulmahn.
In the third set, Mt. Vernon led 5-3, then pulled away by scoring the next 13 points. During that stretch, Perdue had three service aces. Ertel had four of her kills and Hohnbaum added a kill.
“We handled the free balls really well and were able to work running all three of our hitters. And, we were still able to get players in the game that don’t usually get to play as much,” Yeley added.
Along with moving on to the next round, the win was the Marauders’ 10th in a row. During that stretch they have won 29 of 30 sets.
Saturday’s match with Pendleton Heights will be a rematch of an exciting early regular-season contest. Mt. Vernon beat Pendleton Heights in five sets. The Arabians took the first two and the Marauders rallied to win the last three.
