Submitted photo Anna Toy (23) and other members of the South Range volleyball team take a photo with a banner honoring Toy for her 1,000 dig on Tuesday during a match against Hubbard in Beaver Township.

BEAVER TOWNSHIP — South Range remained atop the Northeast 8 Conference with a critical home win Tuesday.

Eyeing their first NE8 volleyball title, the Raiders swept Hubbard in straight sets, earning a sweep of the season series in the process. It was their third straight league win in what has now become a two-team race for the championship with Lakeview.

“Whenever we play Hubbard, we know we’re in for a battle,” South Range head coach T.J. Irons said. “They play really good volleyball, they keep the ball alive. We’ve been battling with them all last summer, and then the last time we played them, it was a really good match too. So we knew what we were getting into. But I think our girls rose to the challenge and played really well tonight.”

Early in Tuesday’s match, junior Anna Toy recorded her 1,000th career dig, which sparked a celebration among the South Range players, coaches and fans that called for a pause to the contest.

While members of the audience held up sheets of paper with ‘1000’ and Toy’s face printed on them, Toy’s teammates rushed the court to congratulate and present her with a banner.

“It meant a lot. I definitely had some tears in my eyes,” Toy said. “I’m very empathetic, so seeing all these people come out and support me with the signs was really cool.”

Irons said the moment and the reaction to it was “the best.”

“You see how happy her teammates are for her,” Irons said. “Our middle school students were up in the stands, they were excited, our parents were excited. That’s when you know that you have a pretty good culture as a program, when everybody’s happy for each other. Doesn’t matter who gets the recognition, we’re all just happy somebody gets the recognition when somebody does something great.”

The halt in action lasted a few minutes, though, which gave Hubbard, trailing 8-6 at the time, a chance to regroup.

“It is a little tricky. It’s almost like a free time out for the other team because we had momentum at the time,” Irons said. “But something about tonight, I just had a really good feeling.”

His intuition proved correct.

Despite the interruption, the Raiders rolled to a decisive 25-14 opening-set victory and opened the second set by winning five of the first six points.

While Hubbard managed to string several points together, including a stretch to take a 8-7 lead, South Range responded with eight straight points. Another Eagles comeback followed to pull within one, but the Raiders closed the second set in dominant fashion for a 25-19 win.

South Range again jumped out an early lead in the final set, taking a 9-3 advantage before Hubbard rebounded to tie it at 12.

But Tuesday was not Hubbard’s night; as Irons could sense, it belonged to the Raiders, who scored five straight points to wrap up the set 25-18.

Hubbard head coach Greg Powell called the loss “disappointing.”

“We had a chance to play for the conference title, and defensively, we didn’t show up. Offensively, we didn’t show up,” Powell said. “I don’t know whether they were intimidated or what, they got it in their head. I know we’re a better team than that, but when it comes down to it, you gotta play ball.

“We had to beat them, and we had to beat Lakeview, so we knew what was on the line.”

While they may not be contending for the title, the Eagles (9-6, 6-3 in NE8) could be an effective spoiler. They need to win each of their final three league matches and for one-loss South Range and Lakeview to each lose two to earn a share of the NE8.

“I told the (South Range) coach, I said, ‘I’ll try to take care of Lakeview,’ and then that would give them first place at least,” Powell said.

As for South Range (12-6, 9-1 in NE8), a win in its final two conference matches would earn the program its first NE8 championship.

“It would mean everything,” Toy said.

The Raiders are at Champion this evening for a non-conference match, while Hubbard visits Poland on Thursday.