Esposito, Mond help Mount St. Joseph sweep Gwynedd Mercy
SPRINGFIELD >> Having a pair of talented hitters in senior Olivia Esposito and junior Daphne Mond provides the Mount St. Joseph girls volleyball team’s attack with plenty of flexibility.
“It gives a lot of options,” Magic coach Amy Bergin said. “A lot of options – the setters have a lot of fun because they can do whatever they want to do basically. It’s very fun – their volleyball IQ is very high so we play to that volleyball IQ.”
For opponents, the all-state duo provides plenty of frustration. Thursday night, visiting Gwynedd Mercy could not slow down either and after Mount took the first two sets of the AACA match it rallied in the third to complete a 3-0 (25-18, 25-10, 25-23) sweep.
“We work together really well,” said Esposito of playing with Mond. “We’ve gotten close in the last few years so it’s been really good getting that chemistry together especially with blocking.”
GMA began the match taking the first five points of the opening game but Mount St. Joseph answered by winning the next five. Trailing 13-11, the Magic put together a 10-2 run and pulled away.
The Mount cruised in the second set but the Monarchs bounced back to make things tight throughout the third, holding a late 22-20 lead before Mount claimed five of the night’s final six points.
“(Game) Two was, let’s just throw that game away, but we competed, I love how we played it,” Gwynedd Mercy coach Jea Lee Wook said. “My gameplan (was) to try to serve with a libero, which for the most part we did. I thought we had a right, good defensive gameplan, I mean there’s only so much they could do against an all-conference middle hitter who’s a D-1 stud.”
The Magic (4-1, 2-1 league) ripped off three straight points to grab a 23-22 lead in the third. GMA (1-3, 0-3) knotted things at 23 but the Magic went to Esposito and Mond to avoid a fourth game and seal the win.
Esposito, a William and Mary commit, gave the Mount a 24-23 advantage, hitting a ball through the hand of a block attempt with the Monarchs’ dig try popping up high before dropping to the floor.
“Yeah, it was definitely a little stressful, especially cause I came from Gwynedd,” said Esposito, who transferred from GMA to Mount after her freshman year. “So it’s good to see my friends again though.”
On match point, Gillian Manas made a dig at the net with Aisleigh Hopkins setting Mond up for an emphatic kill from the left side to secure the Magic’s third straight victory.
“We don’t have two or three arms that we 100% rely on, we’ve got six, sometimes maybe seven arms that we rely on,” Bergin said. “And it could be one of those so-and-so has a great day, well we’re going to feed her all day long, I don’t care, all day long I don’t care where she is. So that’s kind of what happened today. Daphne was on, Espo was on and all right we’ll just stay with them – it’s working. If it’s not broke don’t fix it.”
The Magic claimed the Catholic Academies title and reached the District 1-3A final last season and have gotten 2021 off to a strong start. Mount fell to Villa Maria in four games last Friday but answered the setback with nonleague wins over Archbishop Carroll and Germantown Academy before topping GMA Thursday.
“We’re definitely getting more momentum,” Esposito said. “Villa’s always a hard game, Gwynedd’s always our local rival but we always aim to beat Villa, it’s like districts for us every time we play them it always gets intense. Last year was the first time we beat them in 12 years so it’s really big.”
Gwynedd Mercy could not make it back-to-back wins – the Monarchs swept Haverford in a nonleague match Tuesday – but try for its first AACA victory Friday at home against Villa Maria at 5:15 p.m.
“We lost a lot of leadership but the fact that we are able to give the young people the opportunity to play at the varsity level it’s exciting,” Wook said. “I know that we’re going to go through our little bumps and runs but hey I like my team.”
Mount St. Joseph visits Council Rock North Saturday then returns to league play hosting Villa Joseph Marie Thursday.
“We see a lot of good things – where we could be, what we could be doing, which is good,” Bergin said. “And we have a very, very solid foundation to work up from. They had set their bar very high today, so I challenged them. We can’t go back.
“Don’t go back to where you were two days ago, you have to stay here. Every day you got to get a little bit better. If not better than you stay the same but there’s no turning around. The past is the past for a return. We don’t look back, we just keep looking forward.”
After GMA and Mount traded 5-0 runs, the first game settled into a close contest until the Magic made their move midway through the set. The Monarchs won three straight points to go up 13-11 but Mount responded with the next five to take the lead for good.
Gwynedd Mercy got within two at 16-14 only for the Magic to claim five of the next six points to go up 21-15. Mount pushed the lead to seven at 24-17 and took a 1-0 lead with a 25-18 win.
Mount St. Joseph never trailed in the second game, racing out to a 10-3 advantage after a 5-0 run that forced a GMA time out.
The Monarchs cut their deficit to five twice, the last time at 11-6 before another 5-0 Mount run pushed the margin into double digits as the home side went on to a comfortable 25-10 win.
“I loved seeing the serve/reserve get a lot better,” Esposito said. “We did that so much in practice last night and it’s definitely grown a lot. We’re getting a lot more communication too in the front row between the setter and hitters so that’s always nice to see.”
