MOUNT VERNON – The Hive was buzzing with excitement on Thursday evening.
The Mount Vernon Yellow Jackets girls’ volleyball team was not only playing its home opener, but they were hosting the Ohio Cardinal Conference’s top-rated team in Ashland.
Furthermore, Mount Vernon showed the Ashland Arrows that they were a team to be reckoned with. In a match that saw several lead changes, the Arrows held off the fired-up Yellow Jackets 25-20, 25-19, 25-20.
Even though they won in straight sets, Ashland had to overcome deficits in both the first and third sets, along with a tough Yellow Jackets backline.
Ashland "is a great team,” Mount Vernon volleyball coach Courtney Rabold said. “They’ve been OCC champs the last three years. So, we knew, coming in, it was going to be a battle. With our returning talent this year, and the new girls coming in, I knew that we could take them or we could battle with them. It was great to see my girls rise to the challenge”
Time and time again, the Jackets’ back row would manage to return the ball to the Arrows’ side of the net, on their third hit. Mount Vernon's Maddy Burdette had a busy evening with 22 digs.
“We practice that a lot,” Mount Vernon junior Emma Summerfield said. “There’s a lot of pressure, back there, but we work together. We were ready. We wanted to win.”
The Jackets, with help from players like Maddie Sinsel (five points), took an early 8-5 lead in the first set. Then, the Arrows went on a 14-3 run.
The Jackets rallied, finishing out the first set with a 9-6 run, but fell short. The Arrows held off the charge to take the opening set.
In the second set, Mount Vernon led briefly when Emilee Burke landed an ace and teammates Delaney Rothgeb (29 assists) and Emma Dean double blocked a shot by Camden McDaniel.
In the final set, Mount Vernon got out on top, 7-3, with Summerfield serving and scoring twice. A short time later, the Jackets got a kill from Kennedee Plank, another from Summerfield, who led the Jackets with nine kills, and an ace from Brooke Radermacher (six kills) and led by as much as, 13-8. The Arrows went on a 7-2 run, getting a pair of kills from Karli Shepherd and an ace from Hannah Walsh, to tie the final set at 14.
Walsh and McDaniel scored for the Arrows, later in the third set. Walsh set up a monster block with her teammate Sophie Ediger, putting the Arrows ahead to stay, 21-19, but the Jackets never made it easy.
“Our defense has been amazing, since Day One,” Rabold said. “They’re really in sync. They communicate well. They move their feet well, they read the hitters, I mean, they are fantastic.”
The Jackets (1-1) will host Mansfield Senior, next Tuesday, Sept. 1 at 7 p.m.
