BEAVER TOWNSHIP – In a highly spirited matchup, the Boardman Spartans outlasted the South Range Raiders 3-2 in nonconference volleyball action Wednesday night. The Spartans won in five sets: 25-10, 25-27, 21-25, 25-23, and 15-8 sets.

The Spartans improve to 12-6 overall on the season, winning eight of their last 10 matches. The Raiders fall to 10-9 on the season, having lost five matches in a row now.

“This was so exciting, I love it when they come together and play like this. It warms my heart,” Spartans head coach Rebecca Calvin said. “I feel like we are building on things. We have seven seniors who are really working with our underclassmen and making it one big whole unit instead of us being six or seven individuals out there.”

The Raiders appeared badly overmatched in the first set with the Spartans jumping out to a commanding 23-5 lead. The Raiders seemed to catch their breath late in the set and outscored the Spartans 5-2 to finish the set despite the Spartans winning.

“Volleyball is such a funny sport in how momentum changes so quickly,” Raiders coach T.J. Irons said. “We started about as slow as we have. But the girls just decided to change their mind, which was exciting to see. And the energy on the court erupted, and then our bench energy was raised where you could feel it go into the crowd. It was a really cool atmosphere.”

He added, “There was a timeout late in that first set where I just kind of challenged the girls. Sometimes you don’t know if that is a good thing or a bad thing as a coach, and they took the challenge.

“I told my girls in the huddle that this is not a team that is going to roll over and give us this win. We need to work from start to finish and they showed that. They (Raiders) took us to five games and they are a well-put-together team. I thought they played really well and we played equally as well,” Calvin said.

The Spartans’ front line of Maya Flores, Mary-Catherine Werth and Cianna Johnson was a terror in that first set before the Raiders started to change strategy. They began pushing the ball deeper in the court and forcing the Spartans to work the ball more.

“Their defense kind of came in a little bit because we at first started just tipping over the block. But then we talked about those deep corners might be open, and as soon as you go to the deep corners, where you might not get a kill, but at least they are running those down and not getting it to the setter. So, they weren’t getting good contact on that third ball,” Irons said.

That change in strategy helped power the Raiders to two consecutive set wins of 27-25 and 25-21. But by the fourth set, both teams were fighting back and forth with the lead changing four times in the stanza. Eventually, the Spartans pulled out the 25-23 set win after it was tied at 22-22.

The Raiders looked a bit out of gas by the fifth set as the Spartans seemed to shift into another gear after the set was tied at 4-4. They would close the set with an 11-4 run to win the set 15-8 and the match 3-2.

Leading the way for the Spartans was Maya Flores with 10 aces and 23 kills. Gianna Cicchillo had 24 digs, and Ava Commons had 32 assists.

The Raiders were led by Anna Toy with 24 digs, 17 kills, 3 blocks, and 3 aces. Hayden Carey added 16 assists along with Sarah Kuhns with 14 assists.

“I would like to say that we had a Division I win, but I think people will look at it and see that it was a competitive match and we hopefully get some respect for that,” Irons said tournament seedings.

The Spartans will be back in action Thursday night when they host Warren Harding in an All-American Conference tilt. The Raiders will also play Thursday when they travel to Struthers in NE8 play.