NEW MARKET — Southmont volleyball continued to fight all night long on Monday when the Mounties welcomed the North Putnam Cougars however the visitors were just slightly better on the night as the Mounties fell in three sets (23-25, 20-25, 16-25). The match was a similar repeat of over the weekend as on Saturday at the Cougar’s Early Bird Invite the Mounties fell in two close sets.
In set one after holding a 15-14 lead, the Cougars rallied off seven straight points to take a 21-15 advantage. But the Mounties had one last late set rally in them as well and down 23-17, scored six straight to even things up at 23 before the Cougars scored the final two to take set one. It was a similar story in set two with South holding an early 6-2 lead which turned into North Putnam getting back in the match early and trimmed the Mountie lead to just 9-8. After that seven straight Cougar points made it 15-9. South continued to claw their way back and trailed 18-20, but didn’t have enough in the tank and fell in set two. Set three was all Cougars who jumped out to an 11-3 lead and the Mounties weren’t able to recover.
“North Put really just took the air our of the building in that last set,” Southmont coach Erin Barry said. “I tried telling our girls before the game started that we can’t get down five or six points to this team and expect to us to have a rally in us every single time. It’s tough to mentally come back from, but we did in those first two sets. We did a great job of staying in it and certainly didn’t give up.”
DeLorean Mason led the way with eight kills for the Mounties in the loss. Cheyenne Shaw added five. Mallory Mason set the table with 16 assists. Defensively Jenna Grino had 12 digs with Catie Himes recording 10 of her own. Grino ended the night also with a pair of aces.
This Mountie team is still searching for ways to continually build success as most of it’s roster are seeing varsity playing time for the first time in their careers.
“It’s really early still,” Barry said. “Our main goal as always is to peak at the right time. This group will continue to grow out there I know that for a fact. For me it’s an encouraging sign knowing that they can mentally stay in a game and not let a little run rattle them. We have some work to do and the girls know that.”
Communication out on the court is always a big emphasis for Barry and her team and at points against the Cougars on Monday, it cost the Mounties some points when they were trying to stay in the match.
“I have to give Jenna a lot of credit because we’re relying on her a ton to communicate to that back line,” Barry added. “Having her has helped and we know that all of these will eventually fall into place for us.”
The Mounties fall to 2-4 on the season with the loss. They’ll have little time to dwell as the Mounties will welcome another Putnam County foe in the Greencastle Tiger Cubs on Tuesday.
