Mt. Vernon’s Abby Herman sets the ball against Richmond during the first round of Class 4A Sectional 9 at Yorktown High School on Tuesday, Oct. 12, 2021.
Tom Russo | Daily Reporter
PENDLETON — In front of a packed gymnasium at Pendleton Heights High School, Mt. Vernon and Pendleton Heights put on a show to open up the Hoosier Heritage Conference schedule.
The Marauders fell in a hard-fought five set battle by scores of 25-21, 20-25, 25-19, 18-25 and 15-12.
Pendleton Heights controlled the entirety of set one, jumping out to a 16-6 lead. The Marauders fought their way back closing the gap to 22-19 before a service error and consecutive aces by Pendleton Heights all but sealed the set.
Mt. Vernon came out firing to start the second set and found itself with a 17-11 lead late in the set. This time, it was the Arabians making a charge back, cutting the lead to 21-19.
Mt. Vernon didn’t let them get any closer, closing out the set with four consecutive kills from Sierra Holverson, Sophia Damer, Olivia Johnson, and Holverson once again.
That was the start of a big night from Holverson. The freshman made some big plays for the Marauders in all five sets, recording eight kills and four aces.
“As a freshman she sees the court unbelievably well and just keeps positive energy all night,” Mt. Vernon head coach Samantha Grider said. “She plays great defense and can pass very well. She’s going to be a great player for us as we keep moving forward.”
The Marauders had control in each of the final three sets, but were only able to close out in one of them.
In almost the same fashion as the set prior, Mt. Vernon seemed to have all the momentum in the third, grabbing an early lead behind a kill from Kate Ferguson, an ace from Libby Gee-Weiler and a big block from Holverson that got a loud roar from the Marauder crowd.
As it was all night, nothing fazed the Arabians.
Between a few kills from the Pendleton Heights front row and unforced errors by Mt. Vernon, the Arabians stormed back to take an 11-9 lead, in what ended up being one of the biggest turning points of the night.
The Pendleton Heights run forced a timeout from Grider, who was not happy with the play she saw on the court.
“I pretty much just told them that we were watching volleyball instead of playing,” Grider said. “We weren’t playing any defense and needed to pick that up.”
The timeout seemed to spark a little life into the Marauders who battled back-and-forth throughout the remainder of the set.
They carried over the spark from the timeout into the fourth set, where they dominated from start to finish to extend the match to the fifth and final set. Seven of the Marauders last eight points came on kills from all six players on the court.
All the momentum seemed to be in the Marauders favor heading into set five, and it showed early on. After two Holverson kills, they were up 5-2.
Following the longest volley of the night, and a kill from Easton Wampler that brought the Marauder crowd to its feet, they went up 8-5.
Once again, the lead didn’t faze the Arabians. And, after some unforced Marauder errors and kills from three separate players, they found themselves looking for the match point.
In an unfitting end, the match point was decided on a Mt. Vernon net interference.
This match was just the beginning for the Marauders in what is the gauntlet of HHC play. Their next match is Aug. 30 against Brownsburg, and the next conference match is Sept. 1 against Delta.
“Our conference is a beast.” Grider said. “It’s going to be a battle all the way through each and every night.”
