Southmont volleyball won its second sectional title in the last four seasons last Saturday when the Mounties swept their way to the title over Greencastle. With the championship win, the Mounties extended their season one more week as they are just one of 16 teams left in Class 2A. Now they’ll compete in the Regional semi-final on Saturday afternoon at Cascade against the 20-11 Northeastern Knights who won the Knightstown sectional at 12 pm.
This season the Mounties have been led by its six seniors who were freshman in 2019 when the Mounties last won the sectional crown. This week at practice with the pressure and competition taking a step up, coach Erin Barry is focuses on keeping things as normal as they can be.
“We’re trying to keep things as similar as they can be,” she said. “Our practice routine hasn’t changed from what we’ve done the entire season while the message and plan is staying the same too. I know the girls have been watching film so they’ve been preparing not just in practice but outside of it as well. They’ve come in with tips on how we can get better. It’s stayed business as usual.”
While the Knights may have the better record, come post-season records are thrown out the window and it comes down to who executes their gameplan at the highest level. Stat-wise the two teams are about equal as the Knights have three girls with over 200 kills on the season in senior Bryelle Fisher and juniors Emma Neely and Lilly Null.
Southmont is led by seniors Chelsea Veatch (220) and Dara Watson (212) in the kill department with fellow senior Regan Remley adding 188 of her own. Defensively has been a collective effort as Tayler Anderson leads the team with 375 digs with Veatch notching 365 of her own. Remley adds 261 with setter Mallory Mason having 215. Mason sets up the Mountie offense with 646 assists.
“We just have to be as prepared as we can be for Northeastern,” Barry said. “At this point its a unfamiliar opponent who we don’t know a ton about. We can’t worry about what they do too much as long as we take care of ourselves and get the win. To get these girls a win at Regional would be a big deal. They know they can do it and they have the confidence to go in and get the job done. It simply comes down to playing hard.”
An extra week has also allowed the team to use this experience as a bonding moment as the Southmont faithful not only showed up at Greencastle last Saturday, but have continued to do so throughout the week.
“It’s been a fun week with these girls,” Barry said. “We’ve been able to have a couple of ‘team moments’ where we don’t worry just about volleyball and are able to really enjoy being around one another. I think with it also being Fall Break they’ve been able to get some rest they normally wouldn’t be getting if we were in school everyday. The school and communities support means a lot to these girls to have them there cheer them on. It’s a big time environment and volleyball is such a momentum sport so we hope to see them there again on Saturday.”
If the Mounties are able to come out on top against the Knights, they’ll play the winner of No. 3 ranked Scecina and No. 4 Park Tudor in the Regional final at 6 pm on Saturday.
