(North Adams’ Ava Pistole (7) goes up for one of her 12 kills in the Lady Devils’ district quarterfinal win over Meigs on October 15. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
North Adams sweeps Meigs in three sets
North Adams’ Natalie Ragan (5) and Emma Pistole (14) go full extension for a block attempt in action for the Lady Devils’ straight set district win over the Meigs Lady Marauders. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
North Adams senior Addison Shupert gets airborne on this serve attempt as the Lady Devils downed Meigs in three sets to advance to the Division V district semifinals. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
Another trip to the district semifinals awaits Coach Katie Ragan and her North Adams Lady Devils volleyball squad after they swept to a straight set victory over the Meigs Lady Marauders on October 15. The #8 seeded Lady Devils hosted the Lady Marauders in a Division V district quarterfinal match and though they may not have been at their sharpest, their strong offensive attack again made the difference and led to the North Adams advance.
“Going into the match, we knew that Meigs was a very scrappy team,” said Coach Ragan in her postgame radio interview. “I told the girls that the ball was going to be coming back over the net more than they were used to and it did. Meigs hustled and got to a lot of balls. Volleyball to the east of her is so good and Meigs is a pretty good 8-14 team.” We have to clean up our game, we made too many errors tonight.”
“We don’t have the best track record when it comes to tournament play so I thought we played a little stressed tonight and that showed up in some of our mistakes.”
The Lady Devils were on the attack all night, accumulating 46 total kills, including 12 each from the Pistole sisters, Emma and Ava.
The three sets of this district match followed a pattern that a lot of the North Adams’ sets have this season. The score remains relatively close before the Lady Devils use their serving and hitting prowess to pull away and distance themselves from their opponents. In last week’s first set, that was the pattern as the Lady marauders stayed withing striking range until a series of service points from Morgan Wheeler combined with kills from the Pistoles gave the host team a 13-8 advantage. That lead extended to 16-9 with Addison Shupert at the serve and all the Lady Devils had to do from that point on was to maintain the status quo, which they did holding on for the 25-18 triumph in the opening set.
Set number two was more of the same as the score stood tied at 7 until the Lady Devils went on their run, 10 of the next 11 points behind two service aces from Elizabeth Raines and tenacity at the net with four Ava Pistole kills gave the home side a 17-8 advantage. The Lady Marauders bounced back with five of the next six to make it 18-13 but North Adams answered with three of four. The teams swapped points near the end of the second set and closed out another 25-18 win with a pair of Ava Pistole kills to go up 2-0 in the match.
In the third set, the Lady Devils changed the script a bit by jumping out to an 8-2 lead before Meigs realized the situation and rallied with Marlee Laudermilt serving three aces to bring her team back to within 10-9. Despite the rally, the Lady Marauders were never able to quite get over the hump as the Lady Devils got back-to-back kills from senior Paige Evans and tallied six of the set’s nine points to win the third set and the match, again by a final score of 25-18.
The straight set win over Meigs moved the now 17-6 Lady Devils to a familiar spot in the district semifinals, a place that hasn’t been too kind to them in recent seasons. Coach Ragan and her squad traveled to Waverly High School on October 21 for a match up with #2 seeded Zane Trace, a team that defeated North Adams in four sets back on September 8. (The score of Tuesday night’s match was not available by the press deadline.)
