Mount Vernon News

POWELL — The Mount Vernon High School boys volleyball team fought off another opponent and advanced in postseason play on Wednesday night. The Yellow Jackets defeated the Dublin Coffman Shamrocks in three games, 25-13, 25-20, 25-13, at Olentangy Liberty High School. The match was a stark contrast from Saturday’s, when the Jackets came out flat and had to battle back on multiple occasions.

“We came out with more enthusiasm,” said Mount Vernon senior Sam Bennett. “Coach talked to us about that. We really brought it today. We wanted to play.”

Game 1 saw Mount Vernon (16-7) jump ahead early, 9-4, and not look back. Dublin Coffman (10-11) managed to close the gap to three, 12-9, but five straight unforced errors cost it any shot at overtaking the Jackets. A kill by Carter Cassell and another by Chris Hinger put the Jackets up, 19-9. Two more kills by Hinger, and single kills from Sam Bennett and Greg Brenneman helped Mount Vernon pick up the 25-13 win.

“We had a nice week of practice; we knew we had to step up and keep pushing forward,” said Mount Vernon assistant coach Ron Doup. “We had to get to Saturday. That’s been our main focus. Now that we are to that point, we’ll see what happens, but that was our main goal coming in. Now we’ve got to get past that.

“We played against a little better team (than we did on Saturday), and that makes you look better,” said Doup. “They returned the ball and let us do what we do offensively.”

The Jackets managed to carry the momentum into Game 2, stretching out to a 6-3 lead. The Shamrocks overtook Mount Vernon with a 10-2 run, scoring the last three points off of Jacket errors. A block by Kurt Holland stopped the run, and another point off a Holland serve made it a two-point game. That’s when things took another downturn for Mount Vernon.

On the next serve, Holland turned while serving, injuring his back. The serve didn’t make it over the net, giving the ball back to Dublin Coffman. Mount Vernon coach Alan Cassell called a timeout, and Holland had to leave the game. He was replaced by sophomore Ben Miglin, who saw his first varsity action. Miglin’s first action was forgettable, but that all soon changed.

“I came to the game because coach told me I could keep practicing,” said Miglin. “I knew there wasn’t much of a chance for me to play, but I figured I would just get the warm-ups and the experience. When Kurt hurt his back, I figured Andre Nixon would go in, but he said, ‘Miglin, you’re in.’

“I was real nervous the first play. I was shaking.”

Mount Vernon managed to tie things up at 15, and then at 17 before taking the lead. The Jackets closed the game by outscoring Dublin Coffman, 8-3.

“When coach told Miglin he was going in, we all gave him a pat on the back and said good luck,” said Sam Bennett. “We didn’t expect a lot. It is great to get underclassmen in. ... Miglin didn’t have any varsity experience so he was very nervous. We were trying to pick thing up a little bit.

“We also haven’t run a 5-1 any this year with Carter setting the whole time. We had to adjust.”

Up two games, Miglin helped lift the Jackets to the match win. After a Shamrock serve went out of play to open the game, Miglin served up the next two points. Dublin Coffman’s Josh Wolf slammed a kill to get his team on the board, but Mount Vernon retook the serve and went up, 8-1. The serve bounced back and forth for a little while, but the Jackets continued to pull ahead. A 9-4 spurt put them ahead, 18-7. The ending exclamation point to the run was a kill by none other than Miglin.

“Coach told me to either hit one in or serve it hard. Then he said, just serve it hard, so I did,” said Miglin. “I jumped served it and got an ace.”

Dublin Coffman took the next three points, but a kill by Brenneman helped finish the game. Mount Vernon outscored the Shamrocks, 7-3, to take the 25-13 win.

Carter Cassell had two aces to lead Mount Vernon. Holland, Sam Bennett and Miglin each had one ace.

“We are very pleased with what we saw from him,” said Doup of Miglin. “It is funny because on the way down, we were discussing our playing opportunities for him. Alan asked me what he played jayvee, and I said he played middle, outside, setter and libero for me. He was all over. He was in our middle school program, but took last year off to play tennis. He came back this year, started off a little slow, but continually progressed.

“When Kurt came to the bench, he said his whole body was twitching,” Doup continued. “I asked him what he had done for this before and he said he had never had it before. We sent him straight to the trainer. She thinks it was a pulled muscle possible. It was some kind of a muscle issue in the middle of the back. It really gave him a loss of mobility. His status, at this point, is questionable for Saturday. We’ll just have to see.”

Mount Vernon returns to action on Saturday. The Jackets will play Hilliard Darby in the East District Final at Dublin Scioto High School. The match is set for a noon start. Hilliard Darby beat Olentangy Liberty in three games, 25-14, 25-17, 25-8, on Wednesday night.

“We’ve played a tough schedule,” said Sam Bennett. “We know how to play against the top teams. We beat (Hilliard) Davidson last week. We just have to step it up and push ourselves.”

“We want to go one game at a time and keep building until we reach the top,” said Miglin.

Spoken like a true veteran.