NEW CASTLE — Coach Eric Bulmahn played the well-recognized coach Norman Dale speech from the 1986 movie Hoosiers to his Mt. Vernon girls’ volleyball team prior to their sectional championship match against No. 1-ranked, two-time defending state champion New Castle on Saturday.
He got everything that speech asked for from his seventh-ranked Marauders. They put in the effort, played to their potential — the best they could be.
True to Dale’s words, Bulmahn didn’t care what the scoreboard said at the end of the game. In his book, they were winners.
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The Marauders outstanding 2019 season came to an end on Saturday. They lost to New Castle, winners of the last two Class 3A state championships, 3-0, by set scores of 25-20, 26-24, 25-18.
Mt. Vernon finished the season 27-5, with two losses to No. 1 New Castle, and losses to No. 2 Yorktown, No. 4 Hamilton Southeastern and No. 17 Wapahani. They had three wins over top 25 teams and 10 wins over teams ranked in the top 64 among the Indiana Z-ratings. They had four wins over teams that won sectional titles Saturday night.
None of those teams had to go through the rigors of Sectional 9. It was arguably the toughest in the state. In Saturday morning’s semifinals the Marauders beat No. 13 Pendleton Heights, 3-0, and New Castle got by No. 2 Yorktown, 3-1, in a battle of defending Class 3A and Class 4A, respectively, state champions. The four teams came into the day with a combined 110-11 record, with six of the 11 losses coming to each other.
“All day, they came focused with a mission and without fear,” Bulmahn said. “They were not intimidated by anybody’s press clippings.
“A lot of people said the afternoon match between them and Yorktown was for the championship, but if they watched this match tonight, they know that match wasn’t for the championship. This was for the championship. Our girls played disciplined and incredibly well. The only team that was going to beat them is the No. 1 team in the state on the other side of the net. Nobody else. We don’t lose to anybody else today.”
The Marauders got off to a great start. Down 3-2 in the first set, they went on a 6-0 run, highlighted by a combo block from Olivia Yeley and Victoria Buhlman. With a kill from sophomore Cecilia Bulmahn, Mt. Vernon took an 8-3 lead.
But as it did throughout the evening, New Castle showed why it is ranked at the top of the list of Class 4A schools and No. 11 nationally by MaxPreps.com. The Trojans scored 11 of the next 13 points, to lead 14-10. Mt. Vernon was able to get within two, but no closer in the first.
Mt. Vernon showed its never-give-up approach in the second. Down as much as five, 14-9, the Marauders rallied to cut the margin to 17-16. Cecilia Bulmahn had three kills during the comeback, which was again aided by a combo block from Yeley and Victoria Bulmahn.
New Castle got its lead back up to four points, again, but the Marauders weren’t done yet.
Rachel Pilkington and Macy Lyons had back-to-back kills to tie the set, 23-23. A Cecilia Bulmahn finish negated one set put, but the Trojans were able the take the crucial second set on kills from Mabrey Shaffmaster and Laila Smith.
“I think we just let them go on too many runs, especially when Mabrey (Shaffmaster) was serving,” Victoria Bulmahn said. “Other than that, I think we hung with them. I don’t think they played better volleyball than us. I think we stuck with them the whole time. It could have gone either way in the first two sets.”
Mt. Vernon’s biggest struggles came in the third set. It trailed 24-12 before running off six straight points.
“We played toe-to-toe with them,” coach Bulmahn added. “We had a little bit of a passing breakdown in that third set and that created that spread and that was the whole difference in the game.
“That was the best we played all year.”
Cecilia Bulmahn finished with a team-best 15 kills. Claire Ertel followed with nine.
The Marauders out-blocked the taller Trojans 8-4. Yeley was part of five blocks and Victoria Bulmahn was part of four.
Five Mt. Vernon players had double figures in digs, led by libero Sophie Schultz with 15. Lillie Perdue and Cecilia Bulmahn each had 11. Victoria Bulmahn and Ertel had 10 apiece. Victoria Bulmahn, who will graduate as the school’s all-time leader in assists, had 33 Saturday night.
“We could have come out there and said, ‘they’re a really good team and we don’t have a chance at all,’ but we didn’t do that,” Victoria Bulmahn, one of four seniors, along with Pilkington, Schultz, and Perdue, said. “We gave our all and fought with them. I think we challenged them and I couldn’t be more proud of us.
“We played together as a team and played with a lot of heart and that’s what matters.”
