FORTVILLE — Two of the state’s top high school volleyball teams showed their capabilities to dominate.
Each won one set handily.
When it came down to the nail-biting sets, the veteran Mt. Vernon group came out on top.
The Marauders, with six seniors and a number of other varsity veterans, improved to 12-1 on the season with a 3-1 win over, now 12-2, Brebeuf by set scores of 25-16, 25-23, 14-25, 25-22 at Mt. Vernon High School Tuesday.
The strong Brebeuf club, last year’s Class 3A state runner-up, has just one senior.
“The senior leadership, and we have two great juniors playing out there, too,” Mt. Vernon coach Eric Bulmahn said. “They all come together, and they were saying what’s going to happen (in Brebeuf’s attack). That leadership and that experience, they knew what was coming next and how to stop it.
“We saw some great defensive plays.”
It was the Marauders’ second straight win after suffering its lone loss, a 3-2 decision at Brownsburg on Aug. 31. Brebeuf had won six in a row since its 3-0 loss to Carmel.
The teams played a five-setter last year in Indianapolis — with MV winning that one, too — but with the fifth set looking like it might be a possibility again on Tuesday, the home team came away with the late points in the fourth set to pull out the victory.
“Brebeuf is very well-coached (by Kathryn Haughs) and were doing the right things to get themselves open,” coach Bulmahn said. “Having six seniors was an advantage. They have just one. Our six seniors are smart, and I chewed them out all I could. They had to start talking to each other and they are smart enough to fix it. We started predicting what they were going to do and started shutting it down ahead of time.”
Tied 22-22, the set’s 14th tie, Mt. Vernon scored the final three points. After two Brebeuf attack errors, aided by some strong Marauder defense, MV wrapped up the match with a kill from senior outside hitter Cecilia Bulmahn, her 28th of the night.
The Marauders got off to a great start, opening the match’s first set by scoring the first five points and 11 of the first 12.
During the run, Mt. Vernon had three kills from Cecilia Bulmahn and two from senior Tatum Fitzgerald, who finished with eight. Senior setter Rylee Ugen and Bulmahn had service aces. Brebeuf had four attack errors.
The Braves got within four, 13-9, but the Marauders took off again scoring six of the next seven to stretch their advantage to 19-10. Senior Delaney Bowser, sophomore Sophia Damer and senior Bulmahn had kills and junior libero Abby Herman added a service ace. The other two points came on Brebeuf attack and service errors.
Herman had three service aces and 25 digs, one of four Marauders to get double figures in the defensive category. Bowser had 17, Bulmahn and defensive specialist Libby Gee-Weiler each had 13.
The second set saw 11 ties. Neither team led by more than three points. Brebeuf led 8-5 early. After the 11th tie, 17-17, Mt. Vernon scored the next three points, starting when a long rally ended in a Bulmahn kill.
Brebeuf got within one, 24-23, before the Marauders took their 2-0 lead on a successful attack from senior Meredith Hohnbaum, who finished with five.
“I think, the first set, we might have surprised them with our serving,” coach Bulmahn said. “They didn’t really recover from that. The second set, they passed well and were ready for it and all of a sudden our points got a lot harder.”
Like the first set, the third set was dominated by one team.
This time it was Brebeuf.
Already leading 4-3, the Braves went on a 7-0 run. Mt. Vernon could not get any closer than four points. Brebeuf junior Sydney Robinson had five kills in the set.
“I think the girls get a little fatigued, thinking the other team is going to give us this one,” coach Bulmahn said. “We know better. (Brebeuf) is too good of a team to do that.”
Senior middle blocker Macy Lyons, Damer and Hohnbaum each had three blocks. Lyons also had five kills. Ugen had 46 assists.
“Winning the (close sets) that’s what we need to do,” coach Bulmahn added. “We’re going to have a lot of those against teams we play. The competition is incredible. We play Yorktown (last year’s Class 4A champion, who eliminated Mt. Vernon in the sectional) Thursday and Roncalli on Monday. Any one of these teams can win state.”
