WESTERN RESERVE CAGES THE WILDCATS
By Ty Bartell
BERLIN CENTER OH- Monday night on Your Sports Network was a night that showcased the volleyball and soccer talent from around the area. With four matchups occurring in both sports, including the volleyball match out in Berlin Center between, the home team, The Western-Reserve Blue Devils and The Struthers Wildcats. Coming from different conferences, The Blue Devils out of The Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference (MVAC) and The Wildcats out of The Northeast 8 (NE8), the matchup served as a non-conference test before both teams resumed conference action on Tuesday.
Both teams were hungry for an opening set victory and showed it with their play to start! As the exchanging of points happened at a rapid rate and in a blink of an eye it was tied up 11-11 between the two teams in set one. However, The Blue Devils focused up and got efficient with their swings. Managing a 14-1 run to end the set, Western-Reserve would capture the opening set win 25-12. Taking the momentum that ended the set previous and carrying it into the next one, The Blue Devils were not messing around. Coming out with a fury and capitalizing on Struthers mistakes while doing work behind the service line saw Reserve capture a convincing 25-9 set two win and take a commanding 2-0 set lead.
The third set was the most competitive, with The Wildcats at one point grabbing a 12-7 lead with Mickey Taaffe leading the way behind the service line for Struthers. But once again, despite the battle of The Wildcats, The Blue Devils just had a little more in the tank. Managing the deficit and working themselves back in front as the third set came down to the wire. It would be Western-Reserve that would get the better of Struthers 25-21 in and fun and competitive concluding set three.
Angelina Cappabianca had an impressive statline for The Blue Devils, recording 10 kills, 7 blocks and an ace on the evening. Lisa Eichert led the way in kills (15) while also getting the double-double with digs (11), Eichert also pitched in elsewhere with 2 aces and a block. The two setters were equally as good on Monday as Haylee Fellows and Quincy Miller each had 14 assists to lead the team. While Ally Jones was the defensive anchor once again with her team-leading 18 digs on the night.
The straight-set sweep for Western Reserve (10-1) puts them back into conference action as they hit the road Tuesday, September 19th to do battle with The Waterloo Vikings (5-5). Struthers (5-8) will also be in conference action, as they look to bounce back against a very tough Girard (9-2) also on Tuesday.
