North Adams senior setter Natalie Ragan totaled 59 assists in wins last week over Fayetteville and Fairfield. (Photo by Tim Daulton)
By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
The beat goes on for Coach Katie Ragan and her North Adams Green Devils varsity volleyball squad as they went 3-0 last week to run their record to 10-4 overall, and still a perfect 9-0 in Southern Hills Athletic Conference matches. The Lady Devils got a big five-set non-conference win over Western Brown and followed that up with straight set victories over two of the tougher teams in the SHAC, Fayetteville and Fairfield, the latter being the first loss of the season for the Lady Lions.
With perhaps their two biggest conference challenges on tap, the Lady Devils began the match with Fayetteville on September 18 with a tight 26-24 win in the first set and then proceeded to control the next two sets. In the second set, North Adams raced out to a 15-7 advantage on the road and never looked back. In finishing off the second set 25-15, the Lady Devils got a trio of kills from Emma Pistole and took a 2-0 lead in the match.
“The first set just doesn’t seem to be ‘our’ set,” said Coach Ragan in her postgame radio interview. “A lot of nights we come out slow, almost like we are trying to gauge how good our opponent is and then decide how hard they have to play. There were several good volleys in tonight’s match where the ball went back and forth over the next several times and there were good offensive and defensive plays on both sides, and Fayetteville might be the best serving team in the SHAC.”
In the third and what turned out to be the finals et, the Lady Devils again led early, moving in front 7-2 behind the serves of senior Addison Shupert and two kills from classmate Paige Evans. The Lady Rockets got four of the next seven points to make it 10-6, but that was as close as they’d get. An Ava Pistole kill and a pair of service aces from Elizabeth Raines extended the North Adams lead to seven and after one side out went to Fayetteville, the Lady Devils reeled off four straight with Morgan Wheeler at the serve to take a double digit lead at 17-7. Later after an Emma Pistole kill made it 20-10, senior Natalie Ragan stepped to the service line and took care of the final five points of the match, serving them out to give her team the 25-10 third set win and the 3-0 victory in the match.
“There’s a lot of momentum in volleyball.” added Coach Ragan. “If you have that momentum on your side, it really helps you going into the next set. You don’t want to limp to the finish line in a set because then you are letting your opponent have the momentum for the next set.”
Senior Paige Evans led the North Adams stat line with a team-high 10 kills, with Ava Pistole adding 9 and Emma Pistole 7. Morgan Wheeler led the team with 19 digs while setter Natalie Ragan passed out 32 assists.
“Paige (Evans) is often overlooked on the offensive side,” said Coach Ragan. “She doesn’t hit with the power that the Pistole girls do but she is great at placing the ball and can do it with either hand. She does accumulates stats quietly. We are a little more balanced this year which I think makes it a little tougher for opponent to prepare for us.”
The following night the Lady Devils were on the road again, making the long trek to Fairfield to battle a Lady Lions team that was undefeated in the SHAC and undefeated overall at 11-0 but that ended when the North Adams quad handed them a straight set loss in fairly convincing fashion- 25-17, 25-9, 25-15. In the win, the Lady Devils totaled 33 kills, 10 of those coming from junior Ava Pistole with her sister Emma, freshman Sophia Barlow and the senior Evans adding six apiece.Evans also topped the squad with 22 digs, while Natalie Ragan did her usual solid work at setter, dishing out 27 assists.
This week Coach Ragan and her troops were schedule to host Portsmouth Notre Dame at home on Monday night, another tough non-conference opponent, before jumping back into SHAC play the following night, hosting Lynchburg in their annual Volley For The Cure match. On Thursday, it’s back to non-conference action with a trip to Batavia to conclude a busy week.
