Tag Archive for: Rams

MCDONALD HAS NO PROBLEMS WITH RAMS

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MCDONALD OH- n a match-up of neighboring schools the McDonald Blue Devils outscored the Rams of Mineral Ridge 75-12.

The Blue Devil defense held Ridge to quarter scores of 2, 4, 3, 3 while putting up big offensive scoring of 22, 23, 17, and 13 points in their quarters.

8 Blue Devils scored with Sophia Constantino leading the way with 18 points. Maddy Howard had 17 points followed by 11 from Molly Howard and Taylor Tuchek dropped in 10 points for the 6-1 McDonald team.

*Contributed by YSN’s Gary Leininger

LIONS RALLY TO BEAT RIDGE

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COLUMBIANA OH- Heartland Christian found themselves needing a second half rally to come out with a win Saturday night over Mineral Ridge. The Lions trailed 32-26 at the half, but the Lions outscored the Rams 18-9 in the third frame on their way to a 59-55 win.

Leading the way for the Lions was Joey Donofrio with a game-high 20 points. John Bertovich was right behind him scoring 19.

The Rams were led by both Austin Governor and Maurice Clark with 11 each.

RAMS WIN ON SENIOR NIGHT

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MINERAL RIDGE OH- Mineral Ridge celebrated senior night with a big victory over Lowellville on Saturday night 61-52.

The Rams were led by Austin Governor with 16 points on the night. Triston Weiss wasn’t too far behind him with 14 points.  Jalen Royal Eiland was also in double figures for the Rams with 13 points.

Anthony Lucente had a huge night for the Rockets scoring a game-high 28 points on the night.

The Rams will stay at home to host Sebring on Tuesday. The Rockets will look to bounce back traveling to Western Reserve on Tuesday.

TROJANS SHOCK MINERAL RIDGE ON THE ROAD

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MINERAL RIDGE OH- Emma Whaley had a big night scoring 24 points to lead the Sebring Trojans to a 55-51 victory over the home team the Mineral Ridge Rams. Aebi D’Ostroph added 14 points and Devyn Reggi added 11 points.

Candace Miller paced the Rams with 18 points.Osie Nolder and Courtney Boyer each had 10 points.

Next up for Sebring is a home contest against Campbell on Wednesday.

*Contributed by YSN’s Gary Leininger

LEADING THROUGH ADVERSITY

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MINERAL RIDGE OH- Mineral Ridge senior Haleigh Thomas has not seen her senior season on the volleyball team go as planned.  Am injury has severely limited her playing time, and that has been hard to accept.  With such an uncertain summer with COVID-19, this set back had an opportunity to damper the enthusiasm of Taylor, but Haleigh is built different.  She has taken this adversity in stride and has worked to find ways to lead her team in different ways.

 

Haleigh has become an emotional asset to the Rams this season.  When she is not able to be out on the floor with her teammates, she makes sure the energy is high on the bench.  As we have seen this season finding ways to keep energy high with the COVID regulations have been hard for some teams, but Taylor makes sure that the Rams never struggle in that category.  Haleigh is also an extra set of eyes in practice, and during the match.  She is always looking for opportunities to see things and notice ways to help her team improve on the court.  She is always there to give her team a helping hand.  She has found countless ways to lead through the adversity she is currently fighting.

 

Haleigh took the time to talk with YSN’s Anthony Hartwig.  They discuss being a senior leader, some of her favorite memories with the volleyball program, and much more.  You wont want to miss this exclusive player profile with the fifth senior on the Rams team “Leading Through Adversity.”

 

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YSN VOLLEYBALL REGIONAL PREVIEW

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EAST PALESTINE OH- The OHSAA Volleyball tournament is Down to its sweet 16 and we have 3 teams in the YSN family hoping to keep advancing the in the regional rounds. All regional  semifinal matches are slated for Thursday night and we have all you need to know about each team’s matchups with our regional preview.

Division IV

Wellsville vs Monroeville 5:30 at Uniontown Lake High School

The Tigers are coming off a decisive district championship victory over Western Reserve. They swept a good Blue Devils team that beat them in five sets earlier in the season. Emma Smith was a big reason why. She led the team with 13 kills and 4 blocks. Smith is the player to watch as the Tigers continue in the tournament. She leads the team in kills with 305. The Tigers gave other options that will need to step up. Teams can have to have multiple reliable hitters to advance at this level. The Tigers have 3 other players with over 100 kills. The 6-2 rotation lends itself to always having hitters available in the front row. And the Tigers have two setters that both do a great job moving the ball around. The biggest thing to watch for the Tigers success is their block. They blocked very well against Western Reserve and as the level of play gets higher, their front row will need to prove they can consistently get hands on balls. That will force attack errors trying to avoid the block.

The Tigers opponent Monroeville comes in to the match undefeated, and have yet to lose a set in tournament play. Their strength is their middle blocker Kylee Brooks who has 319 kills on the season. That is a big matchup between her and the blockers of the Tigers. It won’t be easy. Brooks hitting percentage is .404 which tells me she hasn’t been challenged too much in the block.

For me, the Tigers key to victory is moving their outsides and spreading the ball around. They have a more spread out offense by the numbers. They have to make Brooks run across the net. If they let her stay stationary, or become predictable on offense they will have a tough time.

Mineral Ridge vs Dalton 7:30 at Uniontown Lake High School

The Rams come into regionals with a record of 22-2 and won their district championship in four sets over Columbiana.

Katelyn Lesko is the heart and soul of the Ridge offense. If she finds a rhythm, the other hitters will as well. Katelyn demands so much attention from the opponent’s block that the other hitters usually end up with either an open net, or a one on one situation. The question for the Rams is will they be able to capitalize on those opportunities.  The Rams have arguably the best setter in the area in Danielle Aulet. Her volleyball IQ and instincts are at the highest level.

For the Rams, their biggest challenge will be consistently passing and getting in to system. They struggled with serve receive at times against Columbiana and they need to sure that up. With the size disadvantage they have, they cannot afford to be consistently out of system and become easy to block. I think the player to watch outside of the obvious for Ridge is Morgan Sigley. Not only is her serve deadly, but she fills in the front row while Lesko rotates to the back. Sigley has to stay aggressive and put the pressure on the opponents outsides.

Ridge’s opponent Dalton doesn’t have the best record in the world, coming in to the match with a 16-8 record, but don’t let that fool you, Dalton plays a very tough schedule. Smithville who is the Division III regional semifinal pops up on their schedule twice, along with volleyball powerhouse Orrville. The Bulldogs have a deadly 1-2 punch in middle blocker Brennah Arnold, and outside Tess Denning. Arnold has 320 kills, and Denning has 229. This will make it very tough for Ridge to key in on one of them. Dalton hits pretty efficiently with an impressive team hitting percentage of .256, so I expect the Rams will have to match that and try to stay away from unforced errors.

Division III

Crestview Vs Smithville 8:00 at Barberton High School

The Rebels are making their second trip to Barberton for a regional semifinal in two years. However, this team looks a lot different than last year’s. Eight seniors gone, no problem for the Rebels. They have introduced the amazing 1-2 punch of Grace Auer and Lucy Montgomery, who both have multiple triple doubles on the season. Watching this Rebels team, it’s hard to pick out a glaring weakness. They pass well, they have two great setters, who double as strong hitters. They have a pair of strong muddled in Shelby Rambo, and Molly Emch. Montgomery is one of unique hitters at this level that hits better down the line than cross court. A lot of teams are not used to a hitters first option be down the line. It will be interesting to see how Smithville decides to come out initially on defense, and then what kind of adjustments they make if Montgomery consistently hits line.

 

Smithville is a solid team in a tough conference. They come in with a record of 23-1. Smithville is led by a dominant 5’11 outside hitter in Brooke Fatzinger, she is just 4 kills away from 400 on the season. The Rebels also can’t sleep on Brooke Karlen who has 236 kills herself. The Smithies are another efficient team hitting at a percentage of .268. The Rebels have a higher percentage though hitting .279. This could be a very clean volleyball match, which is always fun to watch. Smithville only have 38 blocks on the season so the Rebels may have an advantage in the middle with Emch and Rambo.

Stay tuned to YSN’s twitter account for score updates throughout the night for all three of the matchups.

-Anthony Hartwig

RIDGE FIGHTS OFF CLIPPERS FOR A DISTRICT TITLE

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MINERAL RIDGE OH- Mineral Ridge Volleyball has gone a long time without a district championship. They’ve had several teams over the years with promise who have gotten to the title game, but came up short. Their 2020 squad was determined to put an end to the drought. They’d have to battle their way past a very scrappy Columbiana team in order to do it. The Rams came away with a hard fought four set victory to finally be crowned district champions (25-22 25-16 14-25 25-23).

Leading the Rams offense was Katelyn Lesko who finished with 19 kills on the day. She also completed a double double tallying the team lead in digs with 20. Morgan Sigley had a strong outing finishing with 19 digs, and 9 kills. She had the title clinching kill as well. Danielle Aulet ran the offense to perfection collecting 37 assists.

Columbiana was led by Tori Long who finished with a double double. She tallied 10 kills, and 10 digs. Maddie Witherow put together a strong performance with 7 kills, and 15 digs. Maci Linhart led the Clipper offense with 16 digs. Grace Witmer set up 19 assists. She also compiled 8 digs, and 4 kills.

(Chris Giovannone)

Mineral Ridge advances to the regional semifinals where they’ll travel to Uniontown Lake on Thursday to take on Dalton. That match is set to begin at approximately 7:30.

Columbiana ends the season with a 20-6 record.

(Chris Giovannone)

*Postgame interview with Katelyn Lesko, and Head Coach Ron Lesko

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwwqTyUHEAA[/embedyt]

 

RIDGE EASILY STRIDES TO DISTRICT FINAL

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MINERAL RIDGE OH- Mineral Ridge continued their dominance of the Division 4 district with a quick sweep of St John and Paul (25-7 25-23 25-11).

The Rams were led by Katelyn Lesko who recorded a double double with 21 kills and 11 digs, Danielle Aulet also got herself a double double with 26 assists and 12 digs, Morgan Sigley with 20 digs and and 3 kills and Jersey Tucker with 6 digs and 4 kills.The Rams advance to the district title where they’ll host fifth seeded Columbiana. That game is scheduled for Saturday at 1:00.

SHE IS AULET’S CRACKED UP TO BE

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MINERAL RIDGE OH- In the old days of the 18th century, if something was cracked up it meant that it was highly bragged about, it had a lot of hype. Mineral Ridge senior setter Danielle Aulet gets bragged on a lot. It isn’t just her coaches and teammates that hype her up, it is area coaches and players as well. It seems that Aulet’s skill is widely known in the local volleyball scene, and she absolutely lives up to the praise.

Danielle doesn’t listen to the hype though, in fact she had no idea she was so highly regarded around the area. Her focus is simply leading her team to the best they can be. That is exactly what she has done in her senior season. The Rams have finished their first goal of becoming back to back MVAC champions, and now set their sites on a tournament run. Danielle is confident that the Rams can go far in the state tournament.

Danielle Aulet reached a huge career milestone this season eclipsing 2,000 career assists in their second match against Western Reserve. She currently has 599 assists on the season, Danielle is no slouch on defense either, she leads the team with 237 digs. She is third on the squad with 57 aces.

Danielle took the time to catch up with YSN’s Anthony Hartwig. They talk about her senior season, the mentality of a setter, and much more. Ram fans get ready for tournament action with another exclusive Ram Volleyball Player Profile “She’s Aulet’s Cracked Up To Be.”

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[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhQxdLFCmmM[/embedyt]

PAGING DOCTOR SIGLEY

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MINERAL RIDGE OH- Mineral Ridge volleyball is full of senior leaders. Five of them to be exact. Head coach Ron Lesko likes to give the girls nicknames based on their personality and attributions to the team. For senior Morgan Sigley, her nickname is the doctor. Her precision, and smarts earn her the name. Coincidently, she also wants to go into a medical field after she graduates from high school.

Morgan brings tremendous power, and accuracy to the front row for Mineral Ridge. Although her hitting is a strong skill, she is most dangerous while she is serving. Morgan is one of the Rams top servers, and she keeps an aggressive mindset when she goes back to send a ball over. Her aggressiveness does not take away any reliability either. Morgan rarely commits service errors, which can prove to be costly for a team.

Morgan has played in 69 sets this season for the Rams and has accumulated 137 kills. She has a hitting percentage of .177. She averages 2 kills a set. Sigley leads the team in aces with 72. Her ace percentage is nearly 25% Morgan averages just over an ace per set. Sigley is also a formidable defender, currently sitting at 177 digs.

Morgan took the time to talk to YSN’s Anthony Hartwig. They discuss her future goals, her serving mentality, and much more. Don’t miss the latest Rams Volleyball player profile “Paging Doctor Sigley.”

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[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSwL7IWZsTM[/embedyt]