North Adams’ Lizzie Gill, center, goes high for a kill attempt in the Lady Devils’ four-set win over Eastern Brown on Oct.5. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
The play of sophomore Keetyn Hupp was one of the keys to the North Adams win over Eastern Brown on Monday. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)

By Mark Carpenter

With their perfect record in the Southern Hills Athletic Conference record on the line, the North Adams lady Devils volleyball squad played host on Monday, Oct. 5 to the Eastern Brown Lady Warriors in the annual Volley for the Cure contest. Because of the COVID restrictions still in place, some of the night’s activities were limited but it was still an important night with proceeds going to local families dealing with cancer.
The Lady Devils were coming off a very busy week, four matches plus a Senior Day and the Volley for the Cure preparations, and perhaps that had something to do with their performance in the first set on Monday night, a lackluster set described by Coach Katie Ragan as “flat”. Luckily, her girls recovered their composure to win the match in four sets, 25-27, 25-11, 25-13, 25-17.
In that opening set, the Lady Devils could never find a set rhythm, though they did have a 17-12 lead after a series of DeLaney Harper service points. The visiting Lady Warriors rallied, however, claiming 11 of the next 17 points to tie the set at 23 apiece. A later service error gave the advantage to North Adams at 25-24 but the final three points of the set went the way of Eastern, giving them the first set, 27-25.
All season long, Coach Ragan had time and time again stated that her team never gets too emotional, never too high, never too low, but losing the first set may have lit a fire on Monday night as the home team looked like a totally different squad over the next three sets.
After Eastern jumped to a 4-0 lead in the second set, the momentum took a wide turn. With Harper again at the service line, the Lady Devils reeled off the set’s next 12 points, with Harper firing three aces and teammate Wylie Shipley smashing three kills. The Lady Warriors never recovered from that onslaught as the home team continued to roll with a pair of Shipley service aces pushing the margin to 20-7. Sierra Kendall would finish off the set with four consecutive service points, aided by two Harper kills, as North Adams evened the match, winning set two 25-11.
The third set was more of the same as North Adams raced to a quick 9-2 advantage after back-to-back Keetyn Hupp kills. Later, leading 12-8, the Lady Devils pulled away with Hupp firing off six straight on her serve and the Lady Devils cruised to a third set win, 25-13, going up 2-1 in the match.
With the way the previous two sets had gone, the outcome of the fourth set seemed like a foregone conclusion. That proved to be the case as the Lady Devils led all the way and captured the fourth set by a final score of 25-17, coming back to win the match 3-1.
The win kept the Lady Devils perfect in conference play at 10-0 and they faced a tough test on Thursday, Oct. 8 when they made the trip to Leesburg to face the Fairfield Lady Lions.