INDIANAPOLIS — After winning a hard-fought five-set match over Scecina to advance to the regional final, Southmont ran into buzz-saw against Heritage Christian.
Led by Purdue commit Raven Colvin, the Eagles swept the Mounties 3-0 (25-19, 25-11, 25-18) to win the Class 2A Regional at Heritage Christian High School.
“I told the girls there was multiple moments we were up in the match, and not just like 1-0,” Southmont coach Lauran Nichols said. “The attitude on the court tonight was they were just not their normal self and had kind of already beat themselves in their hear. And that’s constantly something you have to fight against when you’re playing a great team.”
After Heritage Christian (28-4) jumped out to a 15-5 lead in the first set, the Mounties (24-11) went on a run to make it 22-19, but two blocks and a kill by Colvin shut the door.
The Eagles led the whole way in the second set, before the Mounties jumped out to an 8-5 lead in the third set, only to watch it disappear.
Senior Lexi Nelson led the Mounties with 11 kills and nine digs. Kaley Remley added nine kills and two aces, while Sidney Veatch had 19 assists. Natalie Manion added 17 digs, while Chelsea Veatch had nine.
While Heritage Christian advances to play Barr-Reeve in the semi-state, Southmont’s historic season comes to a close.
“I told the girls in the locker room that they took this program to new heights this year,” Nichols said. “They did something a team hadn’t done in 20 some years. They weren’t satisfied with just winning the sectional. They came out this morning and battled with a great team to go to the championship game, and I feel like we aren’t just Southmont anymore. And people see that and they respect our program for the way these girls play.”
The Mounties won a sectional title for the first time since 1993.
Southmont beats Scecina in semi-final
It took five sets, but the Southmont volleyball team fought back from a 2-1 deficit to win their Class 2A regional semifinal matchup with Indianapolis Scecina 3-2.
The 25-17, 23-25, 19-25, 25-16, 15-10 victory gave Mounties fans plenty to worry about, as they move to 24-10 on the season, but most importantly, survive and advance in the tournament.
The first worry was what had happened to the South team that carried the day in the sectional last Saturday with two very convincing wins over two very quality opponents.
The last worry, however, was where to go eat and kill a few hours until the regional final against Heritage Christian in five hours.
After the Crusaders had won the second and third sets to take the lead, the Mounties found the old swagger and convincingly won the fourth set. That momentum carried them into the fifth.
“After that third set, I thought to myself, there is no way we want to end this great season this way.” South coach Lauran Nichols said. “We won the first set, but through the second and third, we just lacked the energy and push of last Saturday. We got on top of our game in the last two sets, though, and Lexi (Nelson) found her groove. That elevated everyone else. Sydney (Veatch), Nat (Manion), Kaley (Remley) all played great and our defense played really well. ”
The Mounties also had a plan for the fifth set.
“We found out earlier this week that Scecina had not played a five-set match all season,” Nichols said of her scouting report.
“We have had several tough five-set matches against the likes of Tri-West and Lebanon, and we had a really tough five-set match late against North Putnam. We practice almost every day for the 15-point game, so I really felt we had an advantage going into it (the fifth set). Of course, we had to win the fourth one to get there.”
Down 2-1 in that fifth set, South got two Nelson kills to take a lead they would never give up.
Veatch put two tips down away from Scecina defenders, and with two Crusaders errors, it was 7-3.
“The most important thing in a short set is to play clean ball and don’t have unforced errors,” Nichols noted.
Remley got the next three kill points and with a Nelson tip, it was 11-6.
Nelson accounted for three of the last four points, and fellow senior Emma Ward had the fourth on a hammer down return.
“These girls just don’t quit,” Nichols said. “They stepped up in those last two sets and they did their thing. I just knew we weren’t ready to be done.”
After winning the first set, the Mounties found themselves chasing Scecina, who finish their season 20-11 in the next two.
They tied the Crusaders seven times and even took a 17-15 lead, but several errors allowed Scecina to take the two-point win.
The fourth set started out with a 10-2 Scecina run and they never looked back.
But the Mounties didn’t look back either, as they advance to the regional finals, looking for their first regional title since 1985.
Nelson had 33 kills, pushing her to 619 for the season and becoming only the second Montgomery County volleyball player to surpass 600.
Veatch had a whopping 50 assists, and the junior setter moves past 900 (903) for the season. She cleared the 2,000 career total earlier this season.
Natalie Manion owned the back line with 32 digs, and the junior has gone past 1,000 for her career.
Remley added 15 kills and 16 digs, while Nelson and Chelsea Veatch each had four aces. Nelson also had 15 digs. South totaled 15 blocks, spread all around, and 13 aces.
