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NORTH JACKSON -- Different day. Same result.
When the McDonald Blue Devils and the Jackson-Milton Blue Jays tangled earlier this season, the Blue Jays were able to get one of their five victories that have come in a five-set match. Last night, the Jays did it again, topping the Devils, 20-25, 25-23, 25-23, 13-25, 15-12.
It was actually identical to the previous encounter with McDonald, winning the first and fourth sets in a Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference marathon.
"We're undefeated when a match goes five sets," Blue Jay coach Sue Prozy said. "After we dropped the fourth, I reminded our players of that. I said, 'You guys got this. Go in there with the confidence that you can go down a game or two and still win this.' And, they did."
After dropping the first set, Jackson-Milton was seeing double in the form of McDonald seniors Molly and Maddy Howard. The twins helped lead the Devils to an early advantage with a big kill from Molly Howard (11 kills) to start the second.
Senior Logan Grunder (15 blocks) was blocking everything that came her way for the Blue Jays. A nice dig from junior Kailee Davis (19 service points) gave Jackson-Milton a 15-14 lead. After a long volley, freshman Grace Bundy finished to give McDonald a 21-19 advantage.
McDonald sophomore Maria Rasile (36 service points, 22 digs) went diving out of bounds and the set was tied at 22. Emily Fultz and Kara Costello avoided disaster when one went over the top of the other. Junior Kylie Wilson was big time with hustle for Jackson-Milton. Senior Dana Saunders closed out the second by killing the ball right on the line for the Blue Jays.
Maddy Howard dug one out by diving face first to the floor to give McDonald a 7-6 lead in the third. She followed with a spike, and freshman Megan Klockner (47 service points, 3 aces, 28 assists) hit it backwards over her head and over the net. However, the effort of senior Kelsie Taylor (13 kills) helped the Blue Jays take the third.
Senior Camryn Mitchell's serving had Jackson-Milton on top 7-3 to start the fourth. The Blue Devils went on an 11-0 run thanks to the superb serving of Rasile. Rasile took a little double hop before delivering a jumping serve. Sophomore Paige Grope does a little bit of everything for the Blue Jays, but McDonald dominated the fourth set.
"Our serves became more consistent in the fourth," McDonald coach Amy Harrison said. "We had good vollies. We were moving and talking. Everybody was swinging hard. The girls are competitive. I want us to continue getting better every game."
Emily Fultz put Jackson-Milton up 6-3 with some fine serving of her own in the decisive fifth set. A Rasile dig tied the set at 6. A great save, high into the air by Taylor put the Blue Jays up 8-7. Taylor followed with a kill. Molly Howard had another big block to tie it 9-9. The amazing play of Grope, coupled with Grunder closing it out, finished off the victory for Jackson-Milton.
"Our team likes to make things interesting," Prozy said. "We tend to do a lot of up and down. I want to continue to get the wins. You never know what could happen this season."