By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
The numbers continue to be staggering for the North Adams Lady Devils varsity volleyball squad. With their season opening win at West Union on august 19, the Lady Devils extended their winning streak in Southern Hills Athletic Conference matches to 40, having not lost a conference outing since October 14, 2022. Their current class of four seniors have never lost a conference match and have captured three consecutive gold ball trophies. As she enters her final season at the helm, Head Coach Katie Ragan has certainly established a legacy that will possibly never be matched.
The 2026 campaign for the Lady Devils began last week with the August 19 trip to West Union to face the Lady Dragons, a team that boasts a roster of experience with seven seniors. But on this night, the Lady Dragons were missing something that the Lady Devils had, big-time power at the net. Again, the numbers were impressive, In what turned out to be a three-set sweep of the home team, the North Adams front line was dominant, getting 47 kills out of the 75 points the Lady Devils scored in the match. The bomb barrage was led by the Pistole sisters, Ava and Emma, who combined for 35 kills between them as the visitors rolled, 25-16, 25-15, 25-10.
The first set of the match began very well for the upset-minded Lady Dragons, as they rode the serves of senior Violet Randolph to a quick 6-1 advantage. West Union maintained that lead at 8-3 before North Adams came alive and rallied with Keatyn Palmer serving and the Pistole sisters and sophomore Sophia Barlow all getting kills. A block by Barlow tied the set at 9 apiece. The next three points went the way of the Lady Dragons and the set remained tight, again deadlocked at 15. After gaining the side out, the Lady Devils sent senior Elizabeth Raines to the service line and things changed dramatically. With her front line handling the duties around the net, Raines reeled off eight consecutive service points, including a pair of aces, and North Adams had grabbed control, leading 24-15. After West Union got one of those points back, a solid kill by Ava Pistole ended the first set with a 25-16 win for the Lady Devils.
Set number two began with North Adams jumping up 4-0 with a trio of Morgan Wheeler serves combined with a trio of Ava Pistole kills. After the early deficit, the Lady Dragons battled back, narrowing the gap to 6-5 after a Jocelyn Hall block and service point. Later in the set, West Union trailed 13-7 but rallied with five service points from Randolph to tie the set at 13. That run proved to be the high point for the home team though as North Adams got the serve back and with Wheeler at serve, ran off 11 straight points, getting four kills from Emma Pistole along the way, to open up a commanding 24-13 advantage. Just as the first set, an Ava Pistole kill was the final point in a second set 25-15 win for the visitors.
The constant offensive attacks by the Lady Devils usually begin to wear on opponents and that began to show as they raced to a quick 4-1 lead in the third set. With Raines serving, they stretched the lead to 8-2 and continued to build the margin, though the feisty Lady Dragons battled back to with 13-9 after another Jocelyn Hall kill. But again North Adams went on a big run, scoring seven straight with Wheeler serving and Ava Pistole adding three more kills. That made it 20-9 and the Lady Devils continued to get five of the last six points, a service ace from Raines being the final point in a 25-10 set win and a sweep of the season-opening match between the county rivals.
As mentioned earlier, the Pistole sisters led the way on the stat sheet, Ava blasting her way to 19 kills with Emma adding 16. After their loss of record-setting setter Natalie Ragan to graduation, the Lady Devils are using a two-setter system this time around and the pair, Sophia Barlow and Elizabeth Raines combined for 34 assists (Barlow-22, Raines-12), with Barlow adding 5 kills and 14 digs. In addition to her outstanding serves, Morgan Wheeler contributed 11 digs. Junior Riley Woods also chipped in with 7 digs.
“Our setting has come a long way,” said Coach Ragan in her postgame radio interview. “Neither Sophia and Elizabeth are natural setters and they are both putting in the work to be better setters. Morgan served the ball well, hustled in the back row and is getting much better at communicating- she does a lot of work and doesn’t always get a lot of credit. Sophia played varsity last year as a freshman and this year we are asking her to do a lot more and I think she has a bright future as a hitter and a setter. The Pistoles are both solid in the front row and they are great to have together on the team.”
“I’m playing nine players this year which is probably the most I have ever used, but they have all worked hard and handle their roles.”
The two teams didn’t have to wait long to renew their rivalry as a quirk in scheduling saw that meet again on Tuesday, August 26, this time at North Adams. (The results of that match were not available at press time.)