FORTVILLE — They lost a lot of winners to graduation, but Mt. Vernon didn’t lose its winning tradition.
The Marauders girls tennis team defeated Greenfield-Central 4-1 in Thursday’s championship match of the Mt. Vernon Sectional to win the program’s ninth straight sectional championship.
Mt. Vernon hasn’t lost in the title match since 2013. The only halt to the team’s 10-year run was cancellation of the 2020 season due to the pandemic.
It was the third straight year Mt. Vernon has defeated Greenfield-Central in the championship match, but this year’s Marauder lineup was much different than 2022.
Only all-state No. 1 singles player Kylie Brandes, who is just a sophomore, and No. 2 doubles player Addison Lockwood are back from last year’s tournament team.
“It’s satisfying. We’ve worked so hard and spent so much time together trying to prove that even though we lost all of our seniors we’re still sectional champions,” Ava Lusby, Mt. Vernon’s junior No. 2 singles player, said. “We can still win matches and we’re still the same team we’ve always been. Losing people doesn’t define our team. We all put so much effort and time in, and not just here but outside. There’s a lot of satisfaction, we’ve earned this.”
Against the Cougars Thursday, Mt. Vernon was led by its three singles players, Brandes, Lusby and junior Maria Downs.
All won in straight sets and were victorious in 36 of 39 games.
After being the decisive third win in opening round and semifinal victories Tuesday and Wednesday, No. 3 Downs was first to finish. In a rematch of the No. 3 singles championship match from last month’s Hancock County Tournament, Downs defeated Madison Succaw 6-0, 6-0. Downs won the previous meeting 6-1, 6-2.
At No. 1, Brandes won 6-0, 6-1 over Brianna McConnell. Lusby followed with the match-clincher, 6-2, 6-0 over Kammi Anderson.
“Their will to win, they have champions’ hearts,” Mt. Vernon coach Gabe Muterspaugh said of his young team. “(Our singles players) set the tone early. We talked to them about jumping out early and not letting up. (Greenfield-Central is) going to get tighter and tighter and we saw that today.”
Shortly after Lusby’s win, juniors Lockwood and Sophia Maxwell grabbed Mt. Vernon’s fourth win, a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Hallie Smith and Lauren Chastain at No. 2 doubles.
In the last match, completed over an hour after the first four had finished, Greenfield-Central’s No. 1 doubles team of seniors Emma Berty and Jaclyn Layton defeated Mt. Vernon sophomores Carmen Lugo and Kim Joubert 4-6, 6-2, 7-5.
With the win, Berty and Layton qualified for the individual doubles sectional tournament Tuesday at Fishers High School.
Mt. Vernon had its 12-straight county tournament title streak end last month when New Palestine edged the Marauders by winning three flight championship titles. New Palestine outscored Mt. Vernon 26-23. The Marauders beat all three county schools on their way to winning Thursday’s sectional championship.
They defeated the Dragons 3-2 Tuesday in the opening round, Eastern Hancock 5-0 in the semis on Wednesday.
“(When we beat New Palestine) it gave us the push we needed,” Lusby said. “We still had to stay focused and we still had other teams to beat. It wasn’t like we beat New Pal, we win. We still had other teams that we had to work for.”
Mt. Vernon advances to Tuesday’s Fishers Regional.
