By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
Another successful season came to a quick and unfortunate ending for Coach Katie Ragan and her North Adams Lady Devils varsity volleyball squad. After winning the gold ball with an undefeated run in the Southern Hills Athletic Conference and a sectional championship win over Leesburg Fairfield, the Lady Devils ran into a buzz saw when they traveled to Waverly High School on October 25 to dace the Nelsonville-York Lady Buckeyes in a Division III district semifinal match up.
The Lady Buckeyes came into last week’s contest with just two losses on the season and they showed why as they disposed North Adams in straight sets, 25-21, 25-15, 25-10.
“KATIE”
The two teams were evenly matched through the opening segments of the junior Kyleigh warren serving first set, tied at 7 before three consecutive North Adams points put them up 10-7. Nelsonville-York bounced right back with junior Kyleigh Warren serving six consecutive points to give her squad the lead. The Lady Buckeyes claimed nine of the next 14 points to look secure, but the resilient Lady Devils ran off five straight on the serves of senior Izzy Grooms to pull within 22-21, but Nelsonville got back the side out and converted the next two points form there, closing the and a 25-21 win on a kill by senior Chloe Lehman.
That momentum from the first set win carried over to the second set for the Lady Buckeyes as they stormed to an 8-0 lead before Coach Ragan called a timeout to calm her troops. The break helped a bit as North Adams chipped into the lead and after a Katelynn Boerger block and a Paige Evans service ace, cut the gap to 15-11. The powerful Lady Bucks did not let them deter them as they proceeded to rattle off nine of 12 points to take the set by the score of 25-15 and a 2-0 stranglehold on the match.
The third set certainly didn’t go well for the girls from Seaman as again the Lady Buckeyes jumped out to a quick advantage, this time 8-2 before a Lady Devils timeout. A Boerger block pulled North Adams within 6-4 but then the proverbial roof collapsed as Nelsonville-York scored eight in a row to take a commanding 16-4 lead. after the Lady Devils scored twice with senior Kirsten Campbell serving, the Lady Buckeyes answered with four more to go up 20-6.
Hanging around as long as they could, the Lady Devils stayed alive with a pair of service points from senior Izzy Grooms but the hole was too deep to climb out of and the #3 seeded Lady Buckeyes finished off the set and the match with a convincing 25-10 victory.
In the loss that ended their 2023 campaign, the Lady Devils produced stat line as follows:
• Katelynn Boerger- 9 kills, 5 digs
• Kirsten Campbell- 8 digs
• Paige Evans- 2 kills, 6 digs
• Izzy Grooms- 5 digs
• Aulbrea Meade- 3 kills, 5 digs
• Natalie Ragan- 2 kills, 9 assists
North Adams ends the season at 19-6 overall and will say farewell to a pair of seniors in Izzy Grooms and Kirsten Campbell, but will return a solid core of players in 2024 to make another run at a district title.