By Brady Extin | The Times-Post
PENDLETON — In front of a packed gymnasium at Pendleton Heights High School, the host volleyball team and Mt. Vernon put on a show to open up the Hoosier Heritage Conference schedule.
The Arabians came out on top in a hard-fought five set battle by scores of 25-21, 20-25, 25-19, 18-25 and 15-12.
Pendleton Heights controlled the entirety of Set 1 behind some strong play from junior Mikala Ross, who recorded five kills in the set. After the Arabians grabbed a 16-6 lead, the Marauders fought their way back into things, closing the gap to 22-19 before a serve error and consecutive ace by senior Hannah Grile all but sealed the set.
Mt. Vernon came out firing to start the second set and found themselves with a 17-11 lead late in the set. This time, it was the Arabians making a charge back into things, cutting the lead to 21-19.
That was as close as Pendleton Heights got before the Marauders closed things out.
The Arabians fought through some adversity in the final three sets to earn the win.
In almost the same fashion as the set prior, Mt. Vernon seemed to have all the momentum in Set 3 after grabbing an early lead once again.
As it was all night though, nothing fazed the Arabians. Between a few kills from the Pendleton Heights front row and unforced errors by Mt. Vernon, they stormed back to take a 11-9 lead in what ended up being one of the biggest turning points of the night.
The Pendleton Heights run forced a timeout from Mt. Vernon. But a late surge by the Marauders wasn’t enough to overtake the Arabians.
Mt. Vernon controlled the fourth set from start to finish, and extended the match to a fifth and final set.
All the momentum seemed to be in the Marauders favor heading into Set 5, and it showed early on when they grabbed a 5-2 lead, and later an 8-5 lead.
Once again, this lead didn’t worry the Arabians either, and after some more unforced Marauder errors and kills from juniors Annie Canada and Tessa Hanson, they found themselves tied at 10. From there, it was back and forth until Grile and Ross struck again for Pendleton Heights and each added another kill to make it 14-12.
In an unfitting end to the back-and-forth battle on the court, the match point was decided on a Mt. Vernon net interference.
The fifth set capped off big nights for Ross and Grile, who recorded 16 and 10 kills, respectively.
After the win, Pendleton Heights sat at 4-2 on the season (1-0, HHC). It was set to take on Lapel at home in its next match on Tuesday, Aug. 30 (after press time), and travel to Yorktown today, Thursday, Sept. 1, and the North Central Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 3.