MPHS wins in three
Let’s
start with the Donna Dulle led Lady
Toppers. As the Taylor family
(minus momma) made our way into our
seats at spacious Redbird arena and
began to thumb through the official
state tournament program, my eighth
grade daughter Jordan remarked “dad,
Mt. Pulaski sure has a lot of losses
and most of the other teams only
have two or three.” In fact,
Friday’s opponent, Payson Seymour
High School from the Quincy area,
entered the match with just two
defeats on the year compared to 11
for MPHS. Using the win-loss logic
only, one thinks a beat down might
be in order. If this logic were
leaned upon, one would be dead
wrong.
After
a tough game one loss, the Lady
Toppers rallied for strong game two
and three wins, and won the match
19-25, 25-17, 25-20 to move in to
the state championship game on
Saturday morning against Lanark
Eastland – who defeated Toledo
Cumberland in game two. Several
items of note much be shared:
1st
– MPHS was paced by some excellent
upper-class leadership from the
likes of senior libero Lindsey
Durchholz, senior Morgan Litterly,
junior outside hitter Haley Bowles
and junior middle hitter Sammy
Nichols. This quartet of leaders
were in the house two years ago when
MPHS won it all, and Nichols 10
kills, Litterly’s six kills,
Durchholz’s 13 digs and Bowles 7
kills and 6 digs paced the ladies in
Purple (actually, they wore black).
2nd
– What can we say about the trio of
freshmen who made the huge leap from
Junior High volleyball to state
tournament action. Jessica Awe,
Rachel Durchholz and Breanna Howe
overcome some game one nerves and
played like juniors and
seniors. Howe had 14 assists, Awe
had 6 assists, 5 digs and two huge
game three aces, and Rachel
Durchholz played strong throughout
the match.
3rd
– MPHS receives some good role play
from seniors Ellen Olson and Kylie
Wyss, and sophomore Sam Fanning.
The balance of the Toppers is really
impressive and I believe sets Mount
Pulaski apart from many other good
teams. Only four seniors will
depart this year, and the Toppers
look poised to continue to create
nightmares from other area H.S.
volleyball teams.
