Top-ranked Mount Vernon volleyball picked up five more wins last week as the calendar turned to October.

The Mustangs stayed undefeated in the WaMaC with a 25-10, 25-13, 25-9 sweep at Independence on Tuesday, Oct. 1.

Mount Vernon attacked at a .429 efficiency and Indee countered at .035. Which is a dominating difference.

Chloe Meester led the attack with 17 kills, followed by Sydney Maue with 9 kills, Paige Schurbon with 7 and Sophia Meester with 5. Sydney Huber had 37 assists and Eryn Jackson led the defense with 11 digs.

The Mustangs then went to the Bobcat Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 5, at Western Dubuque. They defeated Dubuque Senior (21-15, 21-16), Tipton (21-5, 21-12), Cascade (21-8, 21-15) and Western Dubuque (25-21, 25-13).

It was a rare week with no ranked opponents for Mount Vernon (31-3) “At the end of the day, I try to create a schedule that provides challenge and diversity in opponents,” Mount Vernon coach Maggie Willems said. “So that come postseason, we really will have seen it all.”

The Bobcats did push the Mustangs a bit in the championship Saturday, but some of that was self-inflicted.

“In set one, we had 16 errors,” Willem said. “Thankfully we cleaned things up and were much more efficient in set two.” Western Dubuque (12-12) isn’t ranked … but maybe should be in Class 4A.

“They are young and athletic and have some nice pieces,” Willems said. “They should go deep in the 4A postseason bracket.”

The schedule is winding down. The Mustangs hosted No. 8 (4A) Marion on Tuesday, Oct. 8, and travel to the West- side Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 12, at Cedar Rapids Jefferson.

After that, all that is left is the WaMaC Championships and then regional and state tournaments. The brackets have yet to be announced.

“Our training does not really change much,” Willems said. “We’re at the point in the season where we have very targeted training — working on moving forward just a bit more, whether it is skill-based or rotation-based for us.”