By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
It was a long time coming for the North Adams Lady Devils varsity volleyball squad. Back on August 19, the Lady Devils had seen their long winning streak in the Southern Hills Athletic Conference snapped by the Fairfield Lady Lions and since that eventful evening, the North Adams team had October 14 marked on the calendar for the rematch in Leesburg.
To get to the rematch and make it a big school division title game, the Lady Devils had to navigate the rest of their SHAC schedule unbeaten, which they accomplished, and they got a little help for Peebles as the Lady Indians handed Fairfield a straight set conference defeat on September 27. That meant that both North Adams and Fairfield came into last Friday night’s match with a single loss in the SHAC, making the winner the big school division champion.
Sometimes contests with as much on the line turn out to be not so exciting, but Friday night lived up to the advance billing. With a boisterous crowd and so much on the line, the two teams delivered one of the most thrilling matches of the season, a match full of momentum swings that had to go the full five sets.
The Lady Lions struck first, taking the first set 25-15, but North Adams bounced off the mat and captured the next two, 25-19, 25-16, putting them on the cusp of claiming yet another SHAC title. But the Lady Lions rallied in the fourth set and won it by the slim margin of 25-23, setting up the fifth and decisive set. That fifth set was everything expected and when all was said and done, the Lady Lions pulled it out 15-13 to give the Lady Devils their second conference loss and wrestle the big school away from the perennial power.
In the loss, the Lady Devils were led by senior Keetyn Hupp’s 20 kills , with Katelynn Boerger and Riley Richey each adding 6 and Brea Stout 5. Setter Natalie Ragan had a banner night with 34 assists. Boerger also added an impressive 28 digs and 10 blocks.
On the bright side for North Adams, Coach Rob Meade’s squad downed Fairfield in two sets, 25-6, 25-19, to cap off an outstanding season where they finished with a 15-6 overall record, 10-2 in the SHAC.
The varsity Lady Devils finished their regular season at 15-7, 11-2 in conference play and will not set their focus on the postseason. Coach Katie Ragan’s troops will be in action on Thursday, October 20, hosting Chesapeake in a Division III sectional championship game. the match tips off at 6 p.m. at NAHS.