For Mineola fans, last Friday’s volleyball match with Mt. Vernon was a pleasure to watch. The Lady Jackets took the match in four sets: 20-25, 25-5, 25-23, 25-23. It was an afternoon chockfull of quality volleyball to open district play.

Mt. Vernon scored the initial point on what was the longest volley of the game. In a bit of foreshadowing, Paris Spigner had two excellent digs in that volley. 

Behind their consistent attacks from the left wing, the Lady Tigers controlled the first set. Mineola generated a five-point run to tie the game at 11. Kyra Jackson contributed two blocks and Olivia Hughes an emphatic kill in that run. 

Mt. Vernon continued blasting the ball from the left wing with good effect. Mineola, however, never let the Lady Tigers rebuild that initial lead; they stuck close. 

The game was tied at 20 on a Hughes block. In the end stage, it was Mt. Vernon who got the friendly bounce. Two Mineola blocks careened out of bounds, and the visitors took game one. 

If one ever needed confirmation that this year’s Lady Jackets are a special group, it came in game two. Despite giving up the last five points in the first set, the Lady Jackets came out in the second set and played their best volleyball of the year.   

Two Mt. Vernon time-outs – which are notorious for changing momentum in volleyball – had no effect on the state of play. The Lady Jackets were beating the Lady Tigers at practically every turn. They were the first to contest at the net, the first to react, the first to move.

Set two was a rout. Mineola led 11-0 and 20-3 before claiming the second set 25-5. The consistent effort and timing demonstrated by the Lady Jackets caused frustration among the visitors and contributed to communication errors.

Games three and four were mirror images of one another. In game three, it was Mineola that led the scoring throughout. Mt. Vernon pulled to within one point, at 21-20 and again at 24-23, but the Jackets persevered. 

In game four it was the Lady Tigers who led the action, by as much as seven points. The Lady Jackets just kept playing and kept their composure. With Mt. Vernon leading 22-17, the Lady Jackets went on a tear. Hughes scored with a block, a drop, and two kills. Jackson registered two blocks, including the final point of the match. 

It was cause for great celebration in the Mineola volleyball program.