PENDLETON — Mt. Vernon couldn’t help to look ahead, but it took care of business, too.
With Class 3A No. 2 Yorktown waiting for the winner in one of Saturday’s semifinal matches of Class 4A Sectional 9 at Pendleton Heights, the Marauders earned their spot for a rematch against the Hoosier Heritage Conference volleyball champions with a 3-0 sweep of Richmond (17-12) Thursday evening at Pendleton Heights High School.
Mt. Vernon (21-9) won by convincing set scores of 25-15, 25-14, 25-14.
Earlier Thursday, Yorktown (28-2) defeated host Pendleton Heights (17-15) 3-0.
On Saturday, Greenfield-Central (21-9) will play Muncie Central (5-14) in the first of two semifinals at 10 a.m. Mt. Vernon and Yorktown will follow. The championship match will be played at 6 p.m.
Yorktown has won 17 straight and lost just 4 games during that stretch. The first win of its streak was at Mt. Vernon on Sept. 12. The Marauders won one of those four games against the Tigers in a 3-1 loss by set scores of 22-25, 25-21, 25-20, 25-17.
“We said we definitely could not look past Richmond, but we have been talking about Yorktown since we lost to them,” Mt. Vernon coach Samantha Grider said. “We’ve talked about what we need to do to beat them. We need to knock down our errors, and be in system.”
On Thursday, the Marauders did a lot of those things they hope to see Saturday.
Senior setter Ava Whitmore spread the wealth among a large group of attackers. Middle hitters Alivia Morgan and Olivia Johnson and outside and right side hitters Jaycee Jones, Jasmine Henderson and Sierra Holverson all had six kills or more. Jones led the way with 10. In all, nine different players had at least one kill.
“It helps me a lot [to have so many quality hitters],” Whitmore said. “I feel I am really good at watching the blockers and focusing on my money and go-to [hitters]. We have a great hitting lineup and I have trust in all of my hitters to put the ball down when we need to. I like having that trust. It makes me feel like I don’t have to worry. They know how to put the ball down when we need it.”
All had key finishes at key times Thursday.
Tied 5-5 in the opening set, Mt. Vernon took the lead on a Richmond serving error and followed with 10 of the next 13 points. During the stretch, Holverson had four kills and two service aces to help turn a close game into a 16-8 Marauder advantage.
Richmond cut it to four, 19-15, but the Marauders were able to score the final six points.
Henderson had a pair of kills in the late-set run. The final point came on a combo block from Morgan and Henderson.
The second set was tied 8-8 when the Marauders began to get a comfortable lead. Whitmore had 13 assists during the set and three kills herself.
During a stretch where Mt. Vernon outscored Richmond 10-3, Whitmore assisted on finishes from Holverson, Johnson, Morgan and Henderson. She assisted on a pair of Jones’ kills earlier in the set.
Junior defensive specialist Aubry Dowling had a service ace later to extend the lead to 10, 22-12. A Johnson kill closed out the set.
In the third set, on the serve of defensive specialist Vizma Erkmanis, Mt. Vernon won 10 straight points to turn a 7-7 tie into a 17-7 lead.
Johnson had three kills during that stretch and also teamed with Henderson on a block. Erkmanis also had one of the team’s nine service aces.
The Marauder bench helped finish the match off with both junior right side hitter Hope Heniser and sophomore middle hitter Willow Coyner both recording kills.
Following Jones on the kill list, Morgan had nine. Holverson and Henderson each recorded seven and Johnson finished with six. Whitmore had 35 assists.
“Ava does a really good job of mixing up the offense,” Grider said. “If we’re in system, most teams don’t know where to go because all five of my primary hitters can put a ball away.”
Delello had 13 digs and three service aces. Holverson had 11 digs and three aces.
“I feel like we had a slower start. We started with a lot of errors but we talked, took timeout, and talked about minimizing our errors, and focusing as a team and playing together,” Whitmore said. “I felt like we needed to play for us. It felt like we weren’t and we needed to get our nerves out and play together and we started playing better and started clicking. Overall I think the game was good for us going into Saturday.”
