Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by OhioHealth.
LYNCHBURG — Sometimes, when a team comes off its first loss halfway through the season, there can be a little skepticism about how it’ll bounce back.
Luckily for North Adams, the Devils took it on the chin and went back to their dominant ways on Tuesday.
After a five-set loss to Notre Dame just 24 hours prior, the Green Devils quickly rebounded and remained undefeated in the SHAC with a straight set victory — 25-19, 25-16, 25-16 — over Lynchburg-Clay.
“Last night against Notre Dame, I thought we played a much better game than we did tonight,” North Adams coach Katie Ragan said. “We had moments where we were just standing around and letting things happen, but we also had our moments and made some good plays. The most important thing though is we came out with a win.”
CREDIT: Raymond Gleadle/SOSA
It was expected that the Green Devils (15-1, 9-0 SHAC) might lack some energy at the start, and Lynchburg-Clay was determined to make things as tough as possible.
North Adams held early leads of 5-3 and 8-5 in the first set, thanks to multiple kills from Katelynn Boerger. But the Mustangs later tied things up at 9-9. With the game later tied at 14-14, Aulbrea Meade registered a pair of kills to keep the Green Devils ahead.
However, Ava McLaughlin served an ace and Kylie O’Connor later came up with a kill that put the Mustangs (10-5, 8-3 SHAC) ahead 18-17. In the end, though, North Adams had too much firepower behind Boerger, Elizabeth Raines and Paige Evans to end the set on an 8-1 run to close out the win.
“We’re usually a pretty good hitting and blocking team. That’s what has carried us and made us the team we are,” Ragan said. “That’s the strength of our team. We’ve been doing a lot of work on our serving as well, which looked pretty good tonight and that area is only going to make us tougher.”
PHOTOS: Images from North Adams’ win over Lynchburg-Clay
That first set scare seemed to wake North Adams up, and it took no prisoners. Meade, Boerger, Evans and Raines all had a hand in helping NA race out to a quick 11-2 lead.
From that moment throughout the rest of the set, the Mustangs attempted to play catch up and somehow chip away at the lead. But they never got any closer than 15-8 as the Green Devils cruised to a second-set victory.
Not much changed in the third.
With momentum firmly on their side, the Green Devils raced out behind Boerger and Natalie Ragan to jump ahead 12-3. Points continued to rack up before a kill from Boerger ended the night, giving the Devils their 15th win of the season.
Meade finished the night with 13 digs, nine kills and three aces for North Adams, while Boerger had 13 kills and four blocks. Evans had 14 digs alongside four kills, and Natalie Ragan passed out 29 assists.
For Lynchburg-Clay, Joslyn Rockey had 21 digs and Avery Shope added 11 digs. O’Connor also chipped in with eight kills.
North Adams returns to action on Thursday at home against Peebles for SHAC play, while Lynchburg-Clay aims to rebound Wednesday at Paint Valley in non-conference action.
“Confidence is the biggest thing that we have to continue working at. There are times where we make a mistake and we worry too much about it instead of moving on,” Katie Ragan said. “Once we have that confidence and belief that we are good enough, it’s only going to make us better.”
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