Clark hits 3,000 milestone in assists in Blue Angels win over Lady Dragons

PROCTORVILLE — Gallia Academy's Gracyn Clark eclipsed the 3,000 mark in assists while helping the Blue Angels keep their record unblemished on Tuesday as they swept the Fairland Lady Dragons 3-0 in an Ohio Valley Conference match.

The Blue Angels (17-0, 9-0 OVC) went 8-0 in their non-conference schedule and lost just two sets in those matches. Knowing the hard workin the offseason has paid off thus far, coach Ashton Webb felt her team now has a chance to focus on finishing out conference play and prepping for potentially long postseason run.

"Honestly, it started in the winter time, spring time and summer time. They've been putting in the work since day one and it shows how much work they've been putting in," Gallia coach Ashton Webb. "I'm so excited to get to the postseason. We're all itching to get there. So we're just going to enjoy these next couple weeks in the league and hopefully finish off strong and take our energy into the postseason."

Clark became all-time assist holder in the southeast district and has now moved into fifth on the OHSAA all-time career assist list just behind Emilee Seger of Lehman Catholic who finished with 3,013 assists in 2006.

Webb expressed how important Clark has been to the team and its success.

"There's just a lot of trust in Graycn from her teammates and her coaches. When the game is on the line, we want the ball in Gracyn's hands. We know that and I think she's been such an asset to this program."

The Blue Angels attack was led by Piper Pugh with 22 kills while Aubree Frazier had 9 and Aspen Barnes got 8. Clark served up a game-high 3 aces.

Bennett registered a team-high 12 digs, Barnes had 10 and Pugh had 8.

Set One

Gallia controlled the net from the beginning as a combination of Pugh, Frazier, Abby Clark and Gracyn Clark helped the Blue Angels roll their way to a 25-9 score and took a 1-0 match lead.

Set Two

One of the better volleys between the two teams came in the second set. During the volley, both Mallory Petro and Gracyn Clark made diving plays to dig the ball out of kill attempts from Fairland. Likewise, Haven Christian laid out on a dig during the volley as well. But Gallia ended the back-and-forth on a kill by Aspen Barnes to go up11-4 in the set.

The Blue Angels rolled through the set as Clark collected another assist on a kill by Piper Pugh and then Petro had a block to finish things out to win the set 25-10 and make it 2-0.

Set Three

Gracyn Clark's milestone play came right at the beginning of the set. Chloe Bennett was able to dive and dig the ball up to Clark, who then made the set over to Piper Pugh for the kill to make it 2-0.

Pugh brought down another pair of kills and Gracyn Clark added an ace to make it 8-0. Clark helped finish things off by serving an ace and setting for Pugh to drive home a kill to win the set and the match.

Gallia Academy 25 25 25

Fairland 9 10 8

Gallia Academy wins match 3-0

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            GA Fa

Kills     49  n/a

Attempts 82 n/a

Hit % .500 n/a

Assists  43 n/a

Aces      8 n/a

Blocks  9 n/a