UNION LOCAL’S Reagan Vinskovich (23) and Harrison Central’s McKayla Dunkle battle at the net during Monday night’s volleyball game inside ‘The Hangar” at Union Local High School. The Jets won in a clean sweep, 25-16, 25-13 and 29-27. Referee Kim Ogilbee looks on.

MORRISTOWN — Kaye Sechrest calls herself lucky. The Union Local head volleyball coach truly believes that.

“These girls work hard and they are athletic. I’m just lucky,” Sechrest allowed after watching her Jets debut with a hard-earned 25-16, 25-13, 29-27 victory over visiting Harrison Central (1-1) Monday night inside ‘The Hangar,’ which had fans socially-distanced as required by the Ohio High School Athletic Association due to COVID-19 worries. “I’m just lucky to be the coach of these girls.”

After breezing through the first two sets — in which it never trailed or was tied — behind some solid play, both at the net and in the back row, Union Local, which went 22-2 last fall with just one senior, found itself in a dogfight in the third set.

In a set that was deadlocked an eye-popping 26 times, the Huskies took their first lead of the match at 9-8. However, after the Jets evened the count, the Buckeye 8 rivals traded points until Harrison Central pulled ahead 16-14. Union Local once again tied the count at 16-16 and it stayed that way until 27-27.

Both teams had a pair of chances to win the set late, but couldn’t close it out.

Reagan Vinskovich, Union Local’s tower of power in the middle, made it 28-27 when the sophomore blocked a Huskies’ shot. The match ended when Harrison Central couldn’t return the next serve.

“I changed a few things up in that last set,” Sechrest admitted. “The girls need to get that momentum going.”

Sechrest reeled off a couple of reasons why her team couldn’t close out the match earlier.

“We might have had some first-game jitters. We were a little rusty,” she noted. “We’ve got a couple of players doing new things and we’ve got a couple of girls that stepped up. Chloe (Doud) played well in the middle. Casey (Kildow), Reagan, Torre (Kildow), Lacy (Bilyeu) played well. Everyone played well.

“We also may have been rusty for the fact that we weren’t able to scrimmage anyone in the preseason, but that can be said for every team,” she added.

Union Local was led on the stat sheet by senior Casey Kildow who recorded 21 assists, 13 digs, eight kills and an ace. Younger sister, (sophomore) Torre, added 14 assists, 13 kills, 12 digs and nine sets. Vinskovich chipped in 10 kills and five blocks, while senior Bilyeu had 27 sets and 17 digs. Doud, a senior, tallied six digs, five kills, four aces and a like number of sets. Baylee Rex had six sets and five kills and Emily Kellaway added eight sets.

“I told the girls I think we came in here a little timid knowing the team and who we were going to be facing, but I think the girls finally realized they could play with them (Union Local) and compete with them, they finally turned it around there in the third set,” Harrison Central head coach Sarah Hawthorne said. “I was happy with how we played … the first two sets not so much, but the third set is something, hopefully, that we can build off of and carryout through the rest of the season.”

Leading the Huskies were McKayla Dunkle with nine blocks, seven kills and five digs; Lexi Ferguson with 33 sets, 10 assists, six digs and a trio of blocks; Danyel Beadling with 10 digs and eight assists; Audrey Corder with seven blocks; Kate Crothers with nine assists and Maddy Butler with seven digs.