Mustangs sweep to 33rd straight win

 MANCHESTER -- Too many hitters, from too many angles.Too many horses, uh, Mustangs.Class 3A top-rated Mount Vernon quickly reversed a slow start and swept No. 3 West Delaware, 25-19, 25-19, 25-10, in a Wamac Conference East Division showdown Thursday in front of 1,400 at Seedorff Gymnasium."You just can't play defense all night against a team like that," said Hawks Coach Brett Mather.Ranked 13th in the nation by prepvolleyball.com, Mount Vernon (18-0 overall, 5-0 Wamac East) won its 33rd straight match in a streak that began last October.It didn't figure to be easy. And for two sets, it wasn't.The Hawks (21-1, 3-1) bolted to an 8-2 lead before Mount Vernon Coach Shirley Ryan called a timeout."We'd been thinking about this match all week, and I think we were a little nervous," said Amanda Platte, who collected six of her team-high 13 kills in the first game. "But we got comfortable and started to play our game."Mount Vernon came out of the huddle and scored nine straight points for an 11-8 lead, and played from ahead the rest of the match.The Hawks forged ties of 17-all and 18-all but Mount Vernon responded with scored six straight points, four on West Delaware hitting errors."We have to play our game and do our things solid," Ryan said. "We've got great hitters that are going to get good swings."Great hitters ... that might be an understatement. Platte has a Division-I scholarship waiting for her at Drake. Ali Stark (10 kills) is headed to Illinois; Courtney Kintzel (eight kills, five blocks) is UNI-bound.West Delaware scraps and fights as well as anyone, but the Mustangs simply had too many weapons."We tried to swing hard, mix it up with tips and hit shots," Platte said.The second set was even early before the Mustangs put together a three-point run to go up, 12-9. A pair of four-point runs extended the advantage to 20-14, and the Hawks never got closer than four points again.Game 3 was a rout. Mount Vernon scored the first four points, then Mather burned timeouts at 7-2 and 10-2."We'll take some motivation out of this," Mather said. "We didn't come in here just hoping to play them close. Right now, we're not there with them."Sarah Ryan collected 32 assists for the Mustangs. Mount Vernon converted 70 of 72 serves, including its first 68 in a row.Allison Pasker led West Delaware with 13 kills -- four in the Hawks' early surge. Jenna Hermsen distributed 29 assists.

Game

1

2

3

Mount Vernon

25

 25

25

West Delaware

19

 19

10