ANOTHER STRONG WIN FOR RESERVE
By Ty Bartell
BERLIN CENTER OH- During fall sports season, Monday nights on the network typically mean non-conference
volleyball matches! As most teams have conference matchups scheduled on Tuesdays and Thursdays, it leaves open days for teams you do not always get to see square-off, meet on the court. Swing over to Berlin-Center, Ohio and you would have seen a fun matchup between two 10+ win teams with The Western-Reserve Blue Devils hosting in The South Range Raiders! Reserved entered the match 16-1 and current leaders atop of The Mahoning Valley Athletic conference’s (MVAC) Scarlet Division in a first place tie with The Mineral Ridge Rams. While The Raiders were 10-7 and in the middle of the pack of The Northeast 8 (NE8) heading into Monday evening.
The Blue Devils came out in set one with a firm grasp of the momentum while being fed more from the amped-up home crowd! South Range could not get anything going on offense, as Western-Resrve claimed the opening set by an eye-opening score of 25-9! However, The Raiders were not going to be embarrassed and were determined to show more fight in set two. That is exactly what transpired, as South Range battled tooth and nail from the beginning to the end of the set and managed to take set two 25-21, evening the match 1-1.
The match suddenly became a best of three and momentum was back in the air like a jump ball for either team’s taking! The Blue Devils would get back to playing their brand of volleyball in set three as South Range struggled to get rallies going in the set. Reserve would take set three, convincingly, 25-14. Being at home with the advantage, The Devils would play no games in set four. Despite a good fight from The Raiders who were trying to force five, it was Western-Reserve that ,ade the winning plays down the stretch to secure the set 25-18 and the match 3-1!
Angelina Cappabianca was active everywhere in the box score with 10 kills, 7 aces, 5 digs and 2 blocks! Ally Jones, once again, led Reserve in digs with 24. While three different Blue Devils recorded double-doubles, with Haylee Fellows nailing one down with 36 assists and 11 digs and Lisa Eichert recording 12 kills, 16 digs and 3 aces. Alyvia Hughes set herself apart from the others with an outstanding 24 kills and 10 digs, earning the third Western-Reserve double-double in the victory!
The Blue Devils (17-1)(11-1) will get back to conference play with a road matchup against The Springfield Tigers (9-8)(7-5) on Tuesday, October 3rd. South Range (10-8) will stay out of conference when they host The Boardman Spartans (10-6) on Wednesday, October 4th.
