BLUE DEVILS THRIVE IN THE JUNGLE
By Ty Bartell
NEW MIDDLETOWN OH- We are in the midst of yet another successful season for The Western-Reserve Blue Devils! With an impressive 17-1 record heading into Tuesday evening, Reserve finds themselves in a deadlock battle for first place in The Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference’s (MVAC) Scarlet Division with The Mineral Ridge. The next step in The MVAC for The Blue Devils? Hitting the road to go toe-to-toe with The Springfield Tigers! A 9-8 Tigers entering Tuesday, Springfield has shown capabilities of being able to beat anyone across the net from them.
The first set saw an extra point war between the two squads, battling for match momentum. The back-and-forth affair ended with The Blue Devils narrowly winning the opening set 28-26. The set win seemed to simultaneously wake up and energize Western-Reserve! As The Devils would blast Springfield in set two by a more assertive score of 25-14! Holding a two sets to none advantage on the road, Coach Hughes’ squad understood the importance of striking while the iron is hot and the dangers of letting The Tigers hang around. The Blue Devils took care of business in set three by a respectable score of 25-18 to complete the straight set match sweep.
Alyvia Hughes, once again, led the team in kills with 22 and paired that with 15 digs and 3 aces for a double-double in the win! Lisa Eichert also notched a double-double with 14 kills and 13 digs to go along with 3 aces and 2 assists. While Haylee Fellows spread the love around to the tune of 27 assists to lead the team while recording 2 kills, 3 aces and 6 digs on the night.
Western-Reserve (18-1)(12-1) will stay within The MVAC for their next matchup as they hit the road to square-off with The Sebring Trojans (3-14)(0-12) on Thursday, October 5th. Springfield (9-9)(7-6) will look to play spoiler when they also stay inside the conference to do
battle on the road against The Mineral Ridge Rams (16-4)(12-1) also on Thursday. Stay up-to-date with all MVAC standings, scores and more on YSN!
