Top-ranked Mount Vernon claimed its third straight Wamac East title Tuesday, Oct. 8, with a sweep of No. 9 (4A) Marion, 25-20, 25-9, 25-11, on Senior Night.
“It means a lot just to know this our last regular-season home game,” senior Sydney Huber said. “We’ve come a long ways and this is one of the last times playing together. “Obviously, we’ll have more games, but this was one of the last ones.”
The Mustangs found out their postseason path this week, and they’ll get three more home matches if they keep on winning. Mount Vernon opens against West Marshall (13-22) on Tuesday, Oct. 22, then plays either PCM (14-9) or Clarke (9-18) on Thursday, Oct. 24.
The regional final is Tuesday, Oct. 29. The likely opponent will be either No. 15 Nevada (27-9) or Williamsburg (17-8).
But the path to state is in the future. Tuesday was about Marion, and the seniors
“A big thing we focused on was being with each other,” senior Eryn Jackson said. “Not all teams will have the run we hope to have. But we just like playing together, and soaking it up while we have it.”
Marion came in with a chance to earn a share of the Wamac East crown. And during the first set, it seemed like they could pull off an upset.
“We knew they wanted it; they wanted a share of it,” Huber said. “We just had to keep our foot on the gas.”
The Wolves cut the lead to two, 19-17, on an ace serve by Chelsea Goudzwaard. But the Mustangs closed the match on 6-1 run, with a pair of kills from Sydney Maue.
“I think we didn’t quite get traction, momentum right away in set one,” Mount Vernon Coach Maggie Willems said. “But we stayed patient. And I think that’s important this time of year. You can’t lose patience or you get into trouble really fast.”
We just stayed steady and we really executed well when we hit set 2 and set 3.”
The attack was humming in the final two sets. Not only were big outside swings from Chloe Meester (13 kills in match) and Maue (14) working, but middle hitters Paige Schurbon (4) and CaliAna Whitaker (5) were causing a lot of problems for Marion.
“Our middle production has been an important key to our success this year,” Willems said. “When defenses start planning for our pins, and ignore them, they are going to get in trouble.”
“We have really great pin hitters,” Huber said. “Our middles are also really good. So when we can get them involved as much as we can, we’re pretty much unstoppable.”
The Mustangs really took it to the Wolves in the final two sets. And also got some senior reserves time on the court. Olivia Haverback had the set point in the second set, and Sarah Esbaum worked into the serving rotation.
“I love that we could get every senior in and every senior could contribute,” Willems said. “Because they contribute every day in the gym.”
Mount Vernon didn’t take much time to celebrate, and went to another stacked tournament Saturday. The Mustangs lost their second game to an Iowa opponent, falling to No. 4 (2A) Dike-New Hartford 21-25, 25-14, 17-15, in the semifinals of the Gold Bracket at the Westside Invitational at Cedar Rapids Jefferson.
The Mustangs went 3-0 in pool play, beating Waterloo East (21-4, 21-8), No. 11 (2A) Grundy Center (21-11, 21-7) and No. 10 (5A) Iowa City Liberty (21-12, 21-11). They beat West Liberty (25-19, 25-15) in the quarterfinals.
“The loss was frustrating because we had every opportunity to win and could not sustain our focus and execution,” Willems said.
No. 2 (5A) Pleasant Valley ended up beating DNH in the championship 25-20, 25-22.
Mount Vernon is now 36-4, and plays in the Wamac Tournament on Thursday, Oct. 17, in Marion. They may run into East Division champs No. 4 (4A) Clear Creek Amana (34-6), a team they haven’t faced this season. And of course, more rated teams than you can shake a stick at, like Marion, No. 15 (4A) Grinnell, No. 3 (3A) West Delaware, and No. 11 (3A) Solon.