GREENCASTLE — A season ago Southmont volleyball won just three games. This season Southmont’s six seniors vowed to not let that happen again. After their first round sweep over Cloverdale in the Class 2A Sectional 44 on Tuesday, the Mounties battled Riverton Parke and in the semi-finals on Saturday morning and swept the Panthers 31-29, 25-13, 25-19 to advance to the sectional title game that night against Greencastle. Already defeating the Tiger Cubs earlier in the season, the result was the same as the Mounties swept the Tiger Cubs 26-24, 25-15, 25-16 to earn their second sectional title in the last four seasons.
The first set as earlier in the day proved to be difficult to close out. Just needing a single point with a 24-17 lead, the Tiger Cubs scored seven straight to even the score at 24-24. The Mounties were able to re-gain their composure and win the next two points to close out the set.
Coach Erin Barry gives all the credit to her players as this sectional title began in the summer with a motivated team.
“These girls were determined from the very first time we were able to get into the gym,” Barry said. “They knew what they wanted to improve on and what they wanted to accomplish in the end. I was just the lucky one to be able to guide them to where they wanted to go. All the credit goes to them and this is a very special group of girls.”
Senior libero Tayler Anderson spoke on behalf of the six Mountie seniors and noted how it was her team’s time to bring home another sectional title. What makes the leadership of the Mounties special is that there’s not one alpha, it truly is a group of girls who all come together and lead in different ways.
“We deserved this,” she said. “I just kept telling everyone to work as hard as they can, and that’s what we did. We were determined this entire season and put in countless hours in the gym to get to this point. I’m so glad I got to accomplish this with all my best friends. We’ve all been playing together since middle school and have gotten so much better as a team and I couldn’t be more proud of this team.”
Southmont has lived by a motto this season of ‘All Gas No Brakes’. It turned out it wasn’t just some saying that sounds catchy, it was how the Mounties played out on the court. That motto lived true in the most important game of their season as the Mounties were not going to get out-hustled or out-worked.
“I told them all season that we are not going to get out-worked,” Barry said. “It didn’t matter who was on the other side of that net. They stuck with that message and did exactly that in both games today. They were diving everywhere on the court because they knew that every single point mattered.”
Stat-wise for the Mounties in the sectional title win Chelsea Veatch had 22 digs to lead the way, Anderson recorded 19, Regan Remley 17, and Mallory Mason 14. Mason added four serving aces to go along with 23 assists. At the net Cheyenne Shaw and Dara Watson had two blocks each. Watson and Veatch both had eight kills, Remley notched seven and Shaw ended with four.
The win for the Mounties improves their record to 15-14 on the season. They advance to Saturday’s Regional semi-final at Cascade where they will take on Northeastern (20-11) who defeated Hagerstown in the Knightstown sectional championship. The game is scheduled to get underway on Saturday around noon and Barry knows her team isn’t done.
“I want them to enjoy this and I know they will,” she said. “Some of these current seniors were freshman when we won it in 2019 so I know they wanted this really bad. We’ll get back at this week in practice this week but for now they need to live in this moment and celebrate what they’ve accomplished.”
