By James Howell Jr./For Daily Reporter
NEW PALESTINE — While the Hoosier Heritage Conference crown was out of reach for both the New Palestine Dragons and the Mt. Vernon Marauders, the teams had a ton of bragging rights and momentum on the line as the regular season ended.
The Marauders (20-4, 6-1 HHC) came out cohesively early and took away home court advantage in all three sets to win, 25-17, 25-19, 25-20.
In all three sets, the Marauders raced ahead and beat the Dragons (23-4, 4-3 HHC) to the 10-point threshold.
Marauders head coach Eric Bulmahn attributed the strong starts and team work to finally having a schedule that allowed it.
“All season it has been hard to get practices in,” Bulmahn said. “For whatever reason — mostly because we’ve had so many games — we haven’t had a chance to get into rhythm at practices. This week, we had a game moved from quarantine, so we had three straight days of great practices. I think it showed tonight.”
In typical Marauder fashion, Cecilia Bulmahn paced the team early on with five first set kills to go with impressive net work from Macy Lyons with three blocks.
While statistically it wasn’t Cecilia Bulmahn’s best night, according to coach Bulmahn, she went on to have 19 kills in the match.
“I don’t think tonight was Cecilia’s best night,” Bulmahn said. “And I think for us that was a good thing. We need nights like this where the girls grow confidence in one another that they, too, can have multiple kill matches.”
Macy finished with five kills and was joined in by Rylee Ugen, Delaney Bowser, and Sophia Damer with three each.
New Palestine’s offensive attack was shared between the likes of Jada Hausz, Reagan Kleiman and Lauren Wilson.
Wilson and Kleiman each had seven kills, while Jada Hausz and sophomore Bella Brownfield had six each.
Dragons head coach Kelli Gabehart, while disappointed with not picking up the rivalry win, was proud of her team for their focus against the tough competition.
“The message after this one is to put it behind us,” Gabehart said “We played well, but that is a top-10 team in the state, and we played to the best of our ability. Regardless, we can still win our sectional and that was the message. Refocus on that now with all positive vibes”
The Marauders created the biggest separation on the stat sheet with their serving. With 10 aces, the Marauders outpaces the Dragons serving by seven.
Sophomore Kate Ferguson led the momentum in serving with three, including earning the match point with her serve.
Bulmahn and Abby Herman each had two aces as well for the Marauders.
Isabella Gizzi tried to spark momentum in the late part of the third set with back-to-back aces herself, but the momentum quickly swung back the way of the Marauders.
Gizzi and Ugen rarely misplaced a ball with their setting throughout the night. Gizzi finished with 20 assists to go with her two aces and a kill. Ugen finished with 28 assists to go with three kills.
The Dragons now refocus on winning their sectional, in which they enter with more wins than any other team.
The Marauders have one more chance to continue building momentum before the start of the tournament by meeting Bloomington South and Floyd Central in a weekend tournament.
