The Mount Vernon Yellow Jackets got over the .500 mark at 6-5, by going 2-1 on April 8, with senior setter Cooper Carpenter setting up 50 assists in a big 3-2 win over Olentangy Berlin to start off the day.
Olentangy Berlin took the first set in a well-contested battle between the Yellow Jackets and the Bears by a score of 25-22. Mount Vernon battled back with a pair of wins by scores of 25-17 in both the second and third sets. The Bears edged out Mount Vernon in the fourth set 25-23, and Mount Vernon took a close deciding set, 17-15.
Carpenter’s setting was vital with 50 assists, and he also had three kills and three blocks. Parker Gantt took most of those assists and turned them into kills, with 27 kills leading the offense. He had four assists, 14 digs and a pair of blocks. He also had five aces serving.
Other key players included Zack Karns with 15 kills, five blocks and six digs; Ethan Cline with 13 kills, three aces, two blocks and 13 digs. Dash Lepley was a force on defense with 19 digs. Layne Kuhlman added six kills and four blocks.
Mount Vernon faced Hudson in the second match of the day, but was swept 3-0. Gantt led the offense with 13 kills, one block, three digs and a pair of assists. Carpenter had 25 assists, nine digs, two blocks and a kill. Cline posted six kills, one ace and seven digs.
The Yellow Jackets followed up with a 3-0 sweep victory over Centerville, beating the Elks 25-16, 25-11 and 25-20. The team had 38 kills that were fairly evenly distributed in the match victory over the Elks. Hunter Thompson led the Jackets with 12 kills, two blocks, four digs and an assist. Carpenter put up 29 of the team's 37 assists, and also had eight digs, five kills, an ace and a block. Karns posted eight kills, two assists, one block and three digs. Cline led the defense with 10 digs and four blocks, while also posting eight kills. Lepley had three aces and had another solid defensive performance with seven digs.
The Yellow Jackets have three matches on April 15 against St. Ignatius, Beavercreek and Olentangy at 10 a.m., noon and 2 p.m. respectively.
