MOUNT VERNON – The Mount Vernon boys volleyball team isn’t one to sit and wait for things to come to them.
The Yellow Jackets like to attack from the opening serve, hoping to put their opponents on their heels and create opportunities for themselves.
Friday night, the Jackets did just that. They attacked fearlessly and relentlessly against a much taller Massillon Jackson team, sweeping the 13th-ranked Polar Bears 25-18, 25-19, 25-7 at Mount Vernon’s Energy Fieldhouse.
“I think the big thing is we try to stay aggressive in everything,” said Mount Vernon coach Chad Sivewright.
“We definitely try to serve tough. We want to be the aggressor and put them on their heels. We look for situations where they can’t run an offense. We try to serve to spots where they’ll have trouble passing and getting into any kind of offense. I think we did that pretty well.”
The aggressive nature caused the ninth-ranked Jackets (5-2) some problems of its own early on, as they had six service errors in the first set. But, trailing 11-9, the Jackets went on a 6-0 run and never really looked back.
“This was a great team win. Everybody came together and had a really good mentality,” said Mount Vernon’s Parker Gantt. “When we missed, we had side outs and played great. We really changed our mindset, like, we’ve got the next ball.”
Getting that next ball and not letting Jackson (1-2) get any momentum going was the key to the victory for MV. The Polar Bears’ biggest run was just three points, and that was only one time all night.
That three-point run started the second set for Jackson and things looked like it might be going the Polar Bears’ way. But, the Jackets were able to keep the game from getting away from them, only trailing by four one time in the match. MV was able to unleash its kill game at that point, using another 6-0 run to put the second set away.
That’s when things really took off for the Jackets.
The aggressive nature, fed by a strong passing game, helped the Jackets cruise to the victory.
“We had a few, early in set one, service errors,” Sivewright said. “But, I think we took care of that. Once we got into our groove of being super aggressive, we were good.
“You get into that mental mindset and that kind of confidence, then everything starts working.”
Gantt led the Jackets with 13 kills, 11 digs and two blocks. Cooper Carpenter added 20 assists and had two service aces, while Weston Porter had four kills, four aces and three blocks. Logan Kirby checked in with three blocks and three kills, and Dash Lepley had 10 digs;
The Jackets get no time to enjoy the victory, as they are back in action Saturday morning with a quad. State ranked Walsh Jesuit, Cincinnati Moeller and Dublin Jerome will all head to Energy Fieldhouse for a quad match beginning at 10 a.m.
“We schedule tough. We’re going to play the best,” Sivewright said. “We respect these teams, we know they’re good. But, we’re not super intimidated. We face this all the time. It’s going to be a challenge, we know that. It comes down to us limiting our errors because we know they’re not going to make any. If we can do what we did tonight, we can hang with them.”
