CORALVILLE – The top-ranked Mount Vernon volleyball team was able to take down one defending state champion last week at the state tournament, but couldn’t get two.
No. 3 Western Christian beat Mount Vernon in the Class 3A championship 25-23, 22-25, 25-22, 25-18, on Thursday, Nov. 2 at Xtream Arena.
The Wolfpack (32-13) claimed their 19th state crown, which includes 2022, when they upset Dike-New Hartford in 2A.
Western Christian has made 24 straight trips to state (41 trips overall), reaching the semifinals every year.
“We have a great culture of volleyball at Western Christian,” Wolfpack Coach Tammi Verbeek said. “This is a pretty special one. To take a whole new team, and be the smallest school in 3A, and knock off a powerhouse … it’s pretty special.”
The Mustangs (35-5) are no slouches in the dynasty department, with 18 trips to state, including six straight.
But Western Christian puts the “nasty” in Dynasty.
“The players on that team are absolutely insane,” said Mount Vernon junior Chloe Meester, who was named captain of the 3A all-tournament team. “They are just amazing. It kind of sucks. We really did try, but they had a lot more hustle.”
The Wolfpack were strong at the net, but really controlled the championship with defense.
Mount Vernon attacked at just a .154 efficiency in the title match, with 23 errors. The Wolfpack collected 92 digs, led by libero Haley Wielenga with 37, including many on Meester.
“She’s obviously good and can hit the ball,” Wielenga said of Meester. “We tried to keep her kills off the board.”
Meester finished with a match-high 25 kills, but hit just .235.
“We knew Meester liked to hit cross court,” Verbeek said. “We put Haley right in the alley on that. Of course she got her kills. She’s going to Louisville, I hope she can get kills. But can we dig her enough to win the match?”
“We made them uncomfortable. And that’s what we wanted to do.”
The first set was tied 18-18. Then the Wolfpack led 24-19 before the Mustangs fought off set point four times. Then Breya Van Kley closed it out with a kill at the end of a long point.
Mount Vernon carried that fight into the second set, built a 23-18 lead, watched it narrow to 23-22, then forced the Wolfpack into two kill errors to close it out.
The Mustangs opened the third set 5-0, forcing a Wolfpack time out. It was tied 21-21 before Western Christian closed it out with two kills by Shayna Van Dyken and an ace by Scarlett Winterfeld.
Up 2 sets to 1, Western Christian built a 14-8 lead early in set four, and the Mustangs couldn’t rally.
“They were a great team and did a lot of things well,” said Mount Vernon setter Sydney Huber, also an all-tournament pick. “We couldn’t get into a groove of things and we know that we didn’t play our best, but credit to them, they played amazing.”
Huber had 43 assists against Western Christian. Meester had 24 digs to go with her 25 kills. Paige Schurbon had 10 kills and Brooke Ellyson added nine kills.
Shayna Van Dyken led WC with 20 kills, followed by Winterfeld and Keana Wynja with 13 kills each. After Wielenga’s 37 digs, Bentley Bilek had 19 and Winterfeld and Maggie Van Schepen had 10 each.
“They hustled after every ball,” Meester said. “It took us a bunch of tries to get the ball to go down, and they didn’t let it.”
“They were everywhere,” Huber said. “Their defense was great today.”
Mount Vernon advanced to the championship with a win over defending 3A champion Davenport Assumption on Wednesday, Nov. 1. The Mustangs won 23-25, 25-16, 25-15, 25-20.
This day, Mount Vernon used strong serving to keep the Knights from getting into their offense.
“Our serving was a key component,” Brooke Ellyson said. “The pressure for serves is incredibly important in getting them out of system.
“If you can get them out of system, you can control the game how you want.”
Assumption (28-8) won a tightly-contest first set (that featured 15 ties and five lead changes). The Knights hit .294 that set. They only hit .043, .111, and .171 the next three sets thanks to being off-balanced offensively.
“We thought we could steal some points, even if it wasn’t an ace, by disrupting them,” Mount Vernon Coach Maggie Willems said. “And getting the swings we wanted on our side of the net.”
Over the final three sets, the Mustangs only trailed once (1-0 in the fourth set).
“We just made a lot of errors and it was all on us in that first set,” Meester said. “We didn’t have as much energy. But the second, third and fourth set we had way more energy, which helped us.”
The Assumption student section came out early with the “overrated” chant for the No. 1 Mustangs. And later, directly at Meester.
“They were just trying to get into my head,” Meester said. “And I didn’t let that happen.”
Meester finished with 22 kills and hit .386.
More importantly, she was a human momentum shift whenever the Knights made a run.
“She came to play, right?” Willems said. “There are kids that have physical skill and kids who have mental skills. And you don’t always get them together.”
“She’s an automatic weapon,” Ellyson said.
Ellyson added 12 kills, Huber had 42 assists and Ellyson had a team-best 13 digs.
Mount Vernon opened the week with a quarterfinal win over Dubuque Wahlert, 25-21, 25-21, 25-21.
Meester had 22 kills and 19 digs, Huber had 36 assists and Schurbon added seven kills.
The Mustangs head into 2024 losing one starter (Ellyson) to graduation. Expectations will be high again next fall.
“This season was amazing,” Huber said. “I just wish we could’ve finished it.
“That’s going to give us more fuel for next year.”
Mount Vernon’s Cali Whitaker (right) celebrates a point with her teammates during the Class 3A semifinal against Davenport Assumption in Coralville.