It is too early to tell how many titles No. 2 Mount Vernon will collect this fall.
But the Wamac East crown is safely in the trophy case, after the Mustangs beat No. 7 (4A) Marion on Tuesday, Oct. 3, 25-19, 25-21, 16-25, 25-15.
“To win the conference, that’s been our goal all season,” junior setter Sydney Huber said. “It is really special we actually got to do it.”
The Wamac Tournament, Class 3A regionals and, perhaps, 3A state, are coming up relatively quickly.
The Mustangs learned their postseason fate this week. They have the chance to host all three regional games, starting with Williamsburg in the quarterfinal round on Tuesday, Oct. 17. Their regional final match is likely to be either No. 13 Anamosa or No. 14 West Liberty on Oct. 24.
“While this might initially pass the eye test, if you look a little deeper, there are some very good teams in our region,” Mount Vernon Coach Maggie Willems said. “We played West Liberty on Saturday and they are tough.”
Back to Tuesday … junior libero Jaden Rolland was pretty happy to get a conference title on the road at a ranked 4A team.
“After losing a lot of seniors (last year), we didn’t think we’d be as good as we are now,” Rolland said. “I feel like a lot of us have stepped up, and we are doing pretty good.”
Stepping up is what the Mustangs had to do against the Wolves after Marion took the third set, 25-16.
“You’ve got to bring yourself back,” Willems said. “I just said, very calmly, they didn’t do anything different. We’re the problem.
“And so we need to get out of our own heads and get back to playing Mount Vernon volleyball.”
Mount Vernon got rejected a few times in that third set by a strong Marion presence at the net.
“They have a great block. I’m jealous,” Willems said. “I think the first thing we said is we are not afraid. In set 3, we were tipping like a bunch of fraidy cats. You’ve got to keep going after it.
“We got a lot better at that in set four.”
That’s an understatement. Mount Veron started with an 8-1 run, and were leading 19-4 before cooling.
“We talked about refocusing,” Huber said. “We knew we could do it. We realized that we really wanted it, and we had to play like that.”
Rolland said the Mustangs just needed to get back to team volleyball.
“We came together, and got each other’s backs,” Rolland said. “After the third set, we all just got a little un-confident in ourselves and didn’t believe we could do it. They rattled us a little bit. But we came back.”
Junior Chloe Meester led the attack, with 21 kills and a .340 attack efficiency. Paige Schurbon added 9 kills, and Brooke Ellyson had 7 kills.
Huber directed the offense with 41 assists and Rolland led with 15 digs. The Mustangs had 14 aces as a team, and Willems credited Eryn Jackson’s serving for the great start in the fourth set.
“Man, if she gets on a run, it is hard to stop her,” Willems said. “Her serve is absolutely brutal.”
Michaela Goad led Marion with 21 kills.
On Saturday, No. 2 Mount Vernon played in another loaded field at the Westside Tournament at Cedar Rapids Jefferson.
The Mustangs went 3-0 in pool play, beating three Class 5A teams: Cedar Rapids Jefferson 21-5, 21-5, Iowa City West 21-7, 21-11, and Linn-Mar 15-21, 21-6, 15-13.
Then Mount Vernon (29-3, 5-0) beat No. 14 (3A) West Liberty 25-22, 25-22, before falling to No. 1 (2A) Dike-New Hartford 25-11, 25-21, in the semifinals. The Wolverines beat the Mustangs for the third time this fall, and went on to beat No. 1 (5A) West Des Moines Dowling for the championship.
“The first set (against Dike-New Hartford) reflected a real lack of effort and execution by us,” Willems said. “Set two was great volleyball.”
Up next is the Wamac Tournament on Thursday, Oct. 12, in Marion. It features the top four teams in each division (eight total) in bracket play. Mount Vernon opens against Grinnell at 4 p.m.
The semifinals are scheduled for 6:30 p.m. And in a potential championship between division winners at 7:15 p.m., Mount Vernon may get a shot at the other undefeated team in the state (DNH being the other), No. 1 (4A) Clear Creek Amana.
Mount Vernon junior Paige Schurbon attacks into the block of Marion’s Michaela Goad on Tuesday, Oct. 3, in Marion.