MOUNT VERNON — Lexington head coach Janelle Wyant won’t lie: the first half of this season was more difficult than most.
Her team had to practice in Clear Fork’s gym for three weeks, then in the middle school gym while Lexington Local Schools completed the construction of its new junior/senior high school.
Lady Lex also had to play its first eight matches on the road, including seven in the rough-and-tumble Ohio Cardinal Conference.
“It’s been exhausting,” Wyant said.
But Wyant’s club got to practice in Lexington’s new high school gym for the first time Monday night. And on Tuesday, the final night of Lady Lex’s month-long road trip, the girls in purple and gold swept Mount Vernon, 3-0.
They finished the first round of OCC play with a record of 5-2 – two games back from first-place Wooster, the three-time defending champions, and one game back from second-place New Philadelphia.
After all that hustle and bustle, moving constantly from one gym to the next, Wyant’s club is still in the mix for a conference title at the midway point. She couldn’t help but exhale – and crack a weary smile – late Tuesday.
“It’s great because these guys are always scrappy … and (Mount Vernon head coach Lauren Townley) is a great coach, and they’re always ready to play. So it feels good to come in here and win three,” Wyant said.
“We get to play in our brand-new gym on Thursday night – we haven’t been at home yet. We’ve been on the road for eight matches. So it’s just exciting.”
1. Wooster (7-0)
2. New Philadelphia (6-1)
3. Lexington (5-2)
4. Mount Vernon (3-4)
4. Ashland (3-4)
4. West Holmes (3-4)
7. Madison (1-6)
8. Mansfield Senior (0-7)
Lady Lex did it Tuesday with defense and focus down the stretch.
After falling behind 7-2 early in the first set, Mount Vernon stormed back, narrowing the deficit to 17-13 on an ace from Katie King. But Lexington put its foot down shortly thereafter.
The visitors closed the stanza on a 8-2 run, forcing Mount Vernon into five attack errors and taking the first set, 25-15.
The second set featured more of the same. Lexington and Mount Vernon traded points early on – the intensity ratcheting up after several straight long rallies – and after two straight attack errors, Wyant was forced to call a timeout midway through.
Her team led 15-14. The coach said her message was simple.
“Just try to stay aggressive,” Wyant recalled saying. “We had a lot of height and a lot of swings, and (we were) just trying to stretch the court and be as aggressive as we possibly can.”
Lady Lex did that down the stretch. The visitors closed the set on a 10-4 run, winning 25-18 behind airtight defense and opportunistic offense.
Five different Lady Lex players scored to finish the period, led by senior outside hitter Rachel Kocher, whose vicious kills to make it 20-17 and 24-18 squashed any remaining Yellow Jacket momentum.
Mount Vernon did not go down quietly in the third set. After falling behind 12-4, the Jackets kept fighting, chipping away at the deficit until they pulled within 18-15 on a tap-over from Peyja McCord.
But Lexington was able to keep the home team at bay. The Jackets never got closer than 2, and a kill on the edge from Kocher sealed the deal late, giving Lexington a 25-22 win and capping off the sweep.
“It’s exciting to come over here and get (a win),” Wyant said. “It’s hard to get three sets in the OCC because you always have those let-downs in momentum, but we stayed up pretty good tonight, so that was good.”
Lexington’s front line towered over Mount Vernon’s – the visitors had nine players on their roster listed 5-foot-9 or taller, while the Jackets’ tallest player was listed at 5-foot-8 – and they used this to their advantage Tuesday.
Ava Brown, Lexington’s starting right-side setter, dominated in key moments. The 6-foot-1 freshman finished with a team-high 14 kills, right ahead of Kocher’s 13. They were two of six Lady Lex players to score, as others got involved once Mount Vernon adjusted its defense to handle the height.
“I think sometimes it’s a mental game, because we are not the tallest. …” Townley said. “So with Ava Brown on the right side, blocking our outside attack, it’s just kind of a mental game at that point.
“We were trying to be more tricky with our tips and stuff, but their defense is solid, so it was hard to find any open holes.”
Wyant said her front row has been “notoriously strong” defensively this season, but it was her back row that stepped up Tuesday night.
“I thought we did a good job of adjusting defensively. We went to a rotation defense in the second set, where we were covering the line more, where they were hurting us on the line in the first set. I thought we did a better job serve-receiving tonight,” Wyant said.
“We were able to get a lot of kills and side-outs off the serve-receive, so that’s good.”
Lexington was also able to jump out to early leads and never let go. Townley said overcoming early deficits has been a problem for Mount Vernon all year, and Tuesday night was no different.
“We have a tendency to not start (well). …” she said. “When we start in serve-receive, they get to serve first and we serve-receive, we can’t do it. We’ve struggled; it’s been like that all season.
“We usually like to start with the serve, so we’re aggressive first. We just have a hard time with the first-ball mentality of putting it down and just running with it.”
The Yellow Jackets finished 3-4 through the first round of conference play. They are currently in a three-way tie with West Holmes and Ashland for fourth place in the OCC.
Townley’s club will face the Arrows on the road Thursday to begin round two. She believes her team still has plenty to play for, despite the difficult first run-through.
“I think there’s a lot of people that are still overlooking us,” Townley said. “We are not gonna compete for an OCC title, which was our goal. But I just told them in the locker room, ‘How are you gonna respond to this? How are you going to go out for the second half of our season? Are we gonna fight, or are we going to choose to just kind of let teams walk all over us?’
“So I’m hoping that we fight and keep pushing because the OCC has really improved this year – every team can bring something on a different day, it just doesn’t matter. It’s (about) who shows up at that time.”
Lexington, meanwhile, will head into the second round of conference play still in contention for the title. And all of its OCC games from here on out will be at home – in a new purple-and-gold gym.
Wyant believes her program still has a shot at claiming its first conference title since 2018.
“We just have to be ready to play West Holmes and beat them in three (sets) on Thursday night. (We need to) work on some little things we need to clean up and be ready for Wooster to come to our place. It’s a whole different story when they come to your place,” she said with a grin.
“And then just do our job every night, and hope that somebody like New Philadelphia or (Mount Vernon) upsets Wooster down the road. … All we can control is us.”
