HILLIARD – The Mount Vernon boys volleyball team ran the gamut of the state’s top teams this season — tough to do with a young, inexperienced squad.
So it wasn’t until the tournament that the Yellow Jackets got their first win of the season.
Mount Vernon, seeded 17th in the Ohio High School Boys Volleyball Association Division I East Region, earned a 25-12, 25-16, 25-21 victory over Westerville South in a district semifinal on Friday, May 21, at Hilliard Davidson.
The Jackets’ season came to a close the following day, falling to top-seeded Olentangy Liberty 25-11, 25-12, 25-17 in a district final at Westerville North.
“It’s definitely a sigh of relief,” Mount Vernon coach Chad Sivewright said after the Jackets’ win over the 19th-seeded Wildcats. “The teams we’ve played have been so tough ... I didn’t know exactly how we would do. We still had some challenges and we had to make some adjustment. But it was good.”
Mount Vernon (1-20) could have checked out this season as the losses piled up. In fact, Sivewright noticed that it was beginning to impact his team in the middle of the season. So he offered them an extra day off to get their minds right.
“I could kind of sense that they needed a break,” he said. “I said they could take Monday off and I would be fine with that. We had JV still going, so I said, ‘I’ll be there Monday. If you wanna come to practice, that’s fine. If not, I’m 100% behind it if you need an extra day.’”
“Most of our guys came in,” senior Mason Mock said. “We got work in because we want to get better. We weren’t down at all. I think that proved how mentally strong we are. We just kept going through every day. That Monday, he gave us a choice and (most of us) chose to get better, and that was awesome.”
The Jackets played a brutal schedule, featuring Massillon Jackson, Fairfield, Cincinnati Moeller, Cuyahoga Falls Walsh Jesuit and Worthington Kilbourne — all top seeds in their respective regions.
“I feel really good about where we are,” Sivewright said. “You have to look at it to see it. The age group of guys we have; the schedule that we play. If you see the schedule and you see what we’re doing with the group of kids we’re working with, I think we’re right where we want to be.”
That schedule is by design, and the difficult year isn’t going to change Sivewright’s philosophy.
“I’m going to schedule the same way next (season), so that’s not going to change,” he said.
The players are on board with it as well.
“After every loss we had, we just got more and more hungry,” Mock said. “We go into practice every day 100%. There’s been no change. We go into practice every day with our heads up.
“Playing this tougher schedule, it makes us better. We have one of the hardest schedules in the state. Playing these teams … we just get stronger and stronger.”
Parker Gantt had 10 kills, Mason Boatright added eight kills and Cooper Carpenter had seven kills to lead the Jackets against the 19th-seeded Wildcats. Alex Reddy dished out 13 assists; and Carpenter, Gantt, Dash Lepley and Isaiah Jones had seven digs apiece. Carpenter had four aces, Joel Hubbard added three aces and Gantt finished with two blocks.
Carpenter had six kills, four digs and two blocks; Reddy had nine assists; Gantt had three blocks and Lepley had four digs for Mount Vernon against the Patriots.
Mock, Reddy, Boatright and Anthony Thomas are outgoing seniors. But the Jackets return a core group in Gantt, Lepley, Hubbard and Carpenter that gained a lot of experience.
“They’re already a mentally tough group,” Sivewright said. “They keep coming back, so this is only making them stronger there. Once they really start to work it out — next year (or in) a couple of years — they’re gonna be real solid.”
