The Mt. Zion volleyball team is off to a hot start this season having only dropped one game and they made sure it didn’t happen a second time in their Apollo Conference opener on Thursday night. The Lady Braves fought hard in three sets to beat Mattoon, 24-26, 26-24, 25-20. Mt. Zion got behind in set one and eventually dropped the close first set to get down early on in the match. The Lady Braves did not fold as they were down 23-21 in the second set but rallied to win it 26-24 and then dominated the third set to win the match and push their record to 9-1 and 1-0 in the Apollo Conference. Erin Ripple continued her dominance on offense tallying 16 kills and Stephanie Hurm added a season high 30 assists. Mt. Zion will go on the road for another conference tilt on Tuesday against Taylorville and Mattoon will try and regroup for a conference matchup on Tuesday night at Effingham.