The Mount Vernon volleyball team is playing its last season in the Ohio Cardinal Conference (OCC) and will be joining the Licking County League next year, and the team hopes to make the best of their final year in the OCC, driven by a core group of returning players to propel them on a deep playoff run.
"This year, we are returning six letter winners from last year's squad, so we are looking to continue to build a solid foundation with them leading," said head coach Lauren Townley, who has coached at Mount Vernon for eight years, with three as the team's head coach.
Last season, the Yellow Jackets went 13-11 overall and 7-7 in OCC conference play, good for fourth place. They were a much better team on the road going 9-4, but were only 4-5 at home. Mount Vernon was riding a three-match winning streak going into the playoffs, but was knocked out on the road by Licking Heights in the opening round 3-1.
Townley expects the six seniors to step up this year. The experienced leader-players include setter Tori Burdette, defensive specialist Avery Lasater, middle hitter Emma Dean, right-side hitter/middle hitter Madi Dudgeon, defensive specialist Ady Beaver and middle hitter/outside hitter Jurnie Gleason. Junior outside hitter Kaitlyn Thompson and junior defensive specialist Katie King round out the team and bring experience to the squad.
Dean made second team All-OCC during her junior year in a season in which she posted 171 kills, 48 blocks, 57 digs and 17 aces with an 89.6% serve percentage. Burdette was honorable mention All-OCC with 658 assists, 50 kills, eight blocks and 196 digs. Thompson was also honorable mention and was second on the team with 195 kills while accumulating 17 blocks and 72 digs.
Gleason was a strong contributor with a team-high 50 blocks, 118 kills and 48 digs. Beaver had 134 digs, King had 128 blocks and Lasater recorded 116 digs, showing their skills on defense. King also led the team with 34 aces and had a 91.1% serve percentage.
"The six seniors are expected to step up, but overall everyone on the team is expected to step up and perform on the court," Townley said. "Everyone improved in their own way, but Kaitlyn Thompson and Katie King were the two young players on the team who really developed their physical and mental game thus far. We lost four valuable seniors, but we will have players stepping into those shoes and filling roles nicely."
Coach Townley said that her coaching philosophy changes often, but the influence of her previous coaches, Jen Lauber in high school and Tanya Hockman at Malone University, have made huge impacts.
This year, the team has a mantra of "win the moment," and she has an emphasis on the team enjoying themselves on the court which should lead to wins.
"Expectations are to have fun," Townley said. "If they aren’t having fun, we aren’t going to be winning games. We always have the goal to win the conference title, but I would also like to see us make a deeper tournament run than we have made in the past."
