FORTVILLE — Things are about to get tougher for the Mt. Vernon volleyball team.
Not that it’s been easy so far. The Marauders own wins against the likes of Cathedral, Pendleton Heights and Brownsburg, to name a few. The degree of difficult is about to go way up after Tuesday’s win, though.
The Class 4A No. 17 Marauders got past visiting Brebeuf Jesuit, ranked No. 15 in Class 3A, 25-21, 25-13, 25-18 at home, keeping their undefeated season going. They’ve built up plenty of momentum, which they’ll need for a tough five-game stretch that is right in front of them.
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“We knew that Brebeuf is a good team, so we practiced hard,” Mt. Vernon senior libero Sophie Schultz said. “We know what we have coming up. I think it was a big win. It’s a big confidence booster to know that they’re a good team, we can beat good teams. We can do it.”
Like last year, the Marauders started the season 10-0. In 2018, they faced Yorktown, Hamilton Southeastern and Westfield next, dropping all three to quickly see their undefeated season come to an end.
They enter that same three-game slate on Thursday, this time with an 11-0 record. The Marauders will visit No. 1 Yorktown before taking on both HSE and Westfield on Saturday.
It doesn’t get any easier after that, as dates with defending sectional champion Greenfield-Central and another defending state champion, New Castle, await next week. The Marauders went 1-4 during this same stretch last year.
“I think they have a little more confidence this year,” Mt. Vernon coach Eric Bulmahn said. “We’ve got some new pieces, I think we have more firepower. As long as we handle the ball, we’re going to have a chance to beat all those teams. If we don’t handle the ball, where we can make our attacks and keep them on their heels, it might be a long night.”
Building momentum was important, and the Marauders did that with the three-set sweep on Tuesday night.
“I think it was huge, honestly,” senior Rachel Pilkington said. “I think it helps us get ready for Yorktown on Thursday, kind of get us amped up and excited and prove that we can get 11-0, not just 10-0 like last year.”
The Marauders (11-0) opened several five-point leads in the first set but weren’t able to pull away from the Braves (9-3), eventually seeing a big lead shrink to 19-18 late in the set. The hosts got three points in a row to get some breathing room, and a block from Olivia Yeley and a kill from Cecilia Bulmahn eventually sealed the first-set win.
It was a slow start, but it’s one that they rebounded from.
“We definitely struggled in the first set. We came out slow, and that’s not characteristic,” coach Bulmahn said. “We weren’t ready to go. That’s on me. They turned it around halfway through the first set, and second and third they played the way we’re supposed to play. They played well after that.”
After a close start to the second set, Mt. Vernon held a 5-4 before seizing control of the match. Four straight Marauders points forced a timeout. Another big run pushed the lead to eight and forced another Brebeuf timeout. The hosts opened their first double-digit lead of the game at 17-7 in the set and got the lead up to a dozen before closing out the second with a kill from Claire Ertel.
Mt. Vernon opened up a quick 6-3 lead in the third set before seeing it tied at 7-7 and 8-8. A run of four straight points reclaimed the momentum and the Marauders rolled to the three-set sweep from there.
Cecilia Bulmahn led the attack with 15 kills, mostly set up by her sister, Victoria Bulmahn, who had a big game herself with 28 assists, eight digs, four kills and two aces. Pilkington added seven kills, Ertel had six kills, an ace and seven digs, Yeley had four kills, Lillie Perdue had three of the team’s six aces, and Schultz had a team-high 27 digs.
It wasn’t a perfect night, but it was a win they can learn from and build off of.
The tough test the Marauders will face over the next eight days includes three conference and three sectional teams. It will tell the team a lot about themselves. They’ll figure out just how good they are and how they stack up with some of the state’s elite, and they’ll find out what they need to work on as they move deeper into the season.
“I think that tomorrow during practice, we have a few things to work on,” Schultz said. “But I think we’re mentally prepared. I think our defense can handle it.”
“It’s a whole new day when we come out on Thursday at Yorktown,” Eric Bulmahn said. “The best we’ve ever done against them was at home, a five-setter, could have gone either way, but that was a few years ago. Now we have to go up there and make a statement for this team.”