by Kent Harshbarger

Bullettes defend home court

The Mediapolis Bullettes defended their home court in impressive fashion as they swept to victory in their own invitational tournament on September 15. Mepo won all six games they played in the round robin affair.

Mepo opened with sweeps of Notre Dame (21-13, 21-10) and Winfield-Mt. Union (21-14, 21-12), before winning the tournament with a surprisingly easy win over highly ranked New London (21-12, 21-15). The Tigers entered the tournament as the fifth ranked class 1A team in the state.
Bethany Weber stepped up in the win over the Tigers. Weber registered 11 kills and 4.5 blocks in the two game sweep. Marissa Dideriksen added six kills and Katie Hollingsworth two. Molly Petersen set for 17 assists against the Tigers and Amanda Darbyshire had three service aces. Kami Keller and Hollingsworth came up with two blocks each. Hollingsworth had six digs and Brittany Griffith seven.

Mepo head coach Dennis Jandrey pointed to near perfect execution against the Tigers. "The kids played well. Weber came to life and we executed our game plan almost flawlessly. We shut down (Jackie) Lerdal for the most part and that was a key. We had an idea what we wanted to do and the kids executed it," Jandrey said. One part of the plan was to block and the Bullettes were effective as they registered 11 blocks in the contest.

The coach admitted he was worried coming into the match up with New London. "We didn't play with a lot of emotion early in the tournament. We played just well enough to win against Notre Dame and Winfield-Mt. Union. I was a little concerned going into the New London match," Jandrey said.

Against Notre Dame, Griffith came up with three aces and Weber had seven kills. Dideriksen added three kills and Petersen had nine assists. Weber, Petersen and Hollingsworth had two blocks each and Mindy Fye contributed four digs to the defensive effort.

Weber's 12 digs led the Bullettes against Winfield-Mt. Union. Dideriksen added six kills against the Wolves and Kami Keller five. Petersen came up with 21 more assists.

The sweep pushed the Bullettes season match record to 16-3 and their games' mark to 35-8.
Mepo Invitational Tournament.

Team Records
1. Mediapolis 3-0; 2. New London 2-1; 3. Winfield-Mt. Union 1-2; 4. Notre Dame 0-3.
Mepo (21, 21)
Notre Dame (13, 10)
Player sv/ace k a b d
Fye 0-0-0 0 0 0 4
Dideriksen 3-3-1 3 0 0 0
Darbyshire 3-3-0 0 0 0 0
Weber 6-6-2 7 0 2 0
Griffith 13-13-3 0 0 .5 0
Keller 0-0-0 2 0 0 1
Petersen 5-6-2 0 9 2 0
Hollingsworth 3-3-1 2 0 2 0
TEAM 33-34-9 14 9 6.5 5
Mepo (21, 21)
Winfield-Mt. Union (14, 12)
Player sv/ace k a b d
Fye 1-1-0 0 0 0 0
Dideriksen 9-9-1 6 0 0 3
Darbyshire 3-3-0 2 0 0 0
Weber 3-4-1 12 0 0 2
Griffith 8-8-1 0 0 1 0
Keller 0-0-0 5 0 0 0
Petersen 2-3-0 0 21 0 0
Hollingsworth 3-4-0 1 0 0 0
TEAM 30-32-3 26 21 1 5
Mepo (21, 21)
New London (12, 15)
Player sv/ace k a b d
Fye 0-0-0 0 0 0 2
Dideriksen 9-9-0 6 0 0 4
Darbyshire 9-9-3 0 0 0 3
Weber 2-2-0 11 0 4.5 1
Griffith 7-7-1 0 0 1 7
Keller 0-0-0 0 0 2 3
Petersen 6-6-2 0 17 1.5 0
Hollingsworth 7-8-1 2 0 2 6
TEAM 40-41-7 19 17 11 26
Bullettes' Record: Matches (All 16-3, Division 3-1), Games (All 35-8, Division 7-3).