North Adams’ Katelynn Boerger goes up for one of her 18 kills in the Lady Devils’ loss to Zane Trace in the Division V district semifinals. (Photo by Tim Daulton)
North Adams season ends with loss to Zane Trace
Sophomore Elizabeth Raines, shown here serving in last week’s district semifinal, will be one of the key returnees to next year’s Lady Devils squad. (Photo by Tim Daulton)
By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
It seems to appear in these pages about this time every year and the story seems to be the same. The Waverly High School gymnasium has been described as a “House of Horror” for the North Adams Lady Devils volleyball squad and once again this season, it held to be true. After coasting through a 20-2 regular season, unbeaten in Southern Hills Athletic Conference play, the Lady Devils rolled through their first postseason outing, routing Portsmouth in three sets in a Division V district quarterfinal.
That set up a trip to Waverly and a district semifinal match up with the #9 seeded Zane Trace Lady Pioneers, out of the Scioto Valley Conference, which includes such outstanding volleyball teams such as Unioto, Huntington and Southeastern. Before the contest, North Adams head coach Katie Ragan warned that the Lady Pioneers were much better than a nine seed and her words proved to be prophetic. Once again the district wall proved too tall for the Lady Devils to climb as Zane Trace ended the North Adams season with a four-set victory, 25-18, 24-26, 25-20, 25-19.
“Zane Trace deserved better than a nine seed but having said that, we had our opportunities to win the match,” Coach Ragan said in her postgame radio interview. “We were up 10 points in the last set and lost the set. We had our chances but they showed they were better than a nine seed.”
“We score the majority of our points when Katelynn Boerger is in the front row but we really struggled to score tonight when she was in the back row and it felt like she was in the back row a lot.”
“Our other problem is that it just seems like our schedule is too easy,” Ragan continued. “We don’t play enough competition where the ball goes over the net multiple times and we don’t play enough where we get blocked and have to cover that. I have made attempts to toughen up our non-conference schedule next year which will make us better prepared for this type of match.”
The opening set of the October 23 battle was close for the most part, with the Lady Devils leading early and the Lady Pioneers rallying to take an 11-6 lead. After North Adams claimed two points, Zane Trace reeled off four straight behind the serves of Kerrigan Hill to go up 15-8. The Lady Devils spent the rest of the set playing come-from-behind and could never make up the gap. With Paige Evans on the service line, North Adams pulled back to within 23-17, but that was it as the Lady Pioneers took the first set by seven.
After struggling through the first set, North Adams senior hitter Katelynn Boerger came alive in the second as the Lady Devils tied the match at one set apiece. Boerger collected five second set kills, a set that was still nip and tuck most of the way. North Adams led 9-7, 14-12, and at 14-13, three Boerger kills backed the serves of Elizabeth Raines and gave their squad an 18-13 advantage.
This time Zane Trace was playing catch up and that’s exactly what they did, rallying to take a 23-22 lead on a service ace from Reise Grant. The next two points went to North Adams, one on a Natalie Ragan kill, but the Lady Pioneers tied the set at 24 on a block at the net from Laynie Scott. A double hit was whistled on Zane trace followed by a Boerger kill that clinched a 26-24 win for the Lady Devils.
Momentum is a strange bird in the world of sports and one would have though that the exciting second set win might have swung “might mo” the North Adams Way, but that was not the case. The third set began with the Lady Pioneers blazing their way to a 6-1 lead with Scott at the service line. The Lady Devils woke up from that slumber and bounced back with three straight points, only to see Zane Trace take six of the next eight to lead 12-6.
The Lady Devils continued to play in comeback mode, later pulling within 17-15 on an Aulbrea Meade block. But again Zane Trace had an answer, two kills from Scott and a service ace from Addison Platt making it 22-15. An ace from Morgan Wheeler and an Ava Pistole kill kept North Adams alive at 24-20, but a return from the Lady Devils went wide on the next volley, giving set three to the Lady Pioneers 25-20.
With their backs to the wall and their season on the line, the Lady Devils played like a cornered lion as they began the fourth set with a 1o-1 run, led by seven service points from the sophomore Raines. That had everyone convinced that the match was going to have a decisive fifth set, everyone except the Lady Pioneers. Though North Adams maintained the lead, Zane trace began to slowly chip away at the deficit, moving within 15-10 on another Scott kill. With the Lady Devils up 17-12,the momentum of the whole set went the way of the Lady Pioneers.
A shocked North Adams squad and their fans watched as Zane Trace began to smell blood and reeled off nine consecutive points, flipping the scoreboard to a 21-17 lead. That huge run seemed to deflate the North Adams girls, as the Lady Pioneers kept the lead and closed out the match with a 25-19 third set triumph, punching their ticket to the Division V district championship.
The loss closed out the North Adams season with an overall record of 21-3 and they were led in their final match by 18 kills from Boerger, with fellow senior Aulbrea Meade adding 8 kills and 8 digs. Junior Paige Evans had 6 kills and 22 digs, with junior Natalie Ragan passing out 34 assists.
“Our two seniors were by far the majority of our offense,” said Coach Ragan. “They do a great job of hitting, digging and passing and I worry who will do that next season. But we have some good kids coming back and we will ask them to do even more next year.”
The Lady Pioneers went on to capture the district championship, squeaking past Huntington in five sets.
