Southmont volleyball players watched classmates and teammates from other sports win sectional titles in girls golf and soccer, and boys tennis earlier this fall, and weren’t about to miss out on the hardware hunting.
“I think that motivated us even more,” junior Sidney Veatch said of the other teams’ successes. “Because all of the other athletics here are doing so well, especially on the girls side, and I think that has made us push and want to get another sectional championship for the school too.”
Southmont (23-10) jumped out to a 14-2 start on the season, and began to develop as the sectional favorites, but lost eight of their last 14 games to close the regular season, including a pair of losses to potential sectional opponents.
Something had to change, and it did.
“All together as a team we realized that we needed to play as a team,” Veatch said. “And not play individually as ourselves anymore, and it obviously paid off.”
The Mounties proved themselves with three straight wins over Cloverdale, Riverton Parke, and North Putnam to win their first IHSAA Sectional since 1993, and advance to the Class 2A Regional at Heritage Christian this Saturday.
“I think the whole thing for the season is we want to prove ourselves,” senior Lexi Nelson said. “We’ve just been down on another level the past several years, and we want to prove ourselves that Southmont volleyball is changing and it’s getting better. It means a lot because we proved ourselves that we are the first team in 26 years to bring the hardware home.”
The theme of “It’s our time,” paid off for the volleyball team as they won the fourth sectional title this fall for Southmont.
“I think it’s huge for our a program,” Southmont coach Lauran Nichols said. “We’ve seen soccer win a couple sectionals, and seen softball win a sectional, and it’s just really boosted the support. It just gives your program a huge boost. And it gives your youth something to look forward to and work for as they grow up in a program. We don’t want to take away from any other program and what they’ve accomplished, but we want to be a part of that success as well.”
Southmont isn’t done yet though, starting with a matchup against a 20-10 Indianapolis Scecina Memorial team at 12 p.m. on Saturday at Heritage Christian, the Mounties will chase their first regional title since 1985.
“We know we are matched up well with Scecina,” Nichols said. “I don’t want them to think ‘oh we won the sectional and that’s it we’re good,’ but that they really have an opportunity to continue to go further.”
The winner will play the winner of Hagerstown (28-3) and Heritage Christian (26-4) in the championship game at 7 p.m.
Coming off a sectional win where the Mounties proved many doubters, they’re ready to do it again.
“We just want to go out there and prove to everybody that we aren’t giving up because it’s the end of the season,” junior Kaley Remley said. “We want to do well and we are playing for Southmont and for coach. Everyone has been on us about not winning a sectional, so we just went out there and proved it.”
