Photo by Kim North Shadyside’s Aubrey Nippert (24) returns a shot over the defense of Bellaire’s Aubree Hines (2) and Marissa Pacifico (15) during their match Monday night inside a toasty Tigers Den at Shadyside High School. The host Tigers won in a sweep, 25-9, 25-7 and 25-13.

SHADYSIDE — Having a match already under its belts, Shadyside performed like a seasoned volleyball squad Monday night over debuting Bellaire.

The end result: a clean sweep for the Tigers (2-0) over the visiting Big Reds inside a toasty Tigers Den at Shadyside High School by scores of 25-9, 25-7 and 25-13. Shadyside had previously swept Bridgeport on Saturday.

“Always playing a match before your opponent starts the season is huge,” Shadyside head coach Eric Mercer said. “We did a lot over the summer with leagues and tournaments and things like that that really helped us get ready for the season. We’re in a lot better shape this season than if we hadn’t done those things.

“Our serving was really, really good tonight. We focus on first-contact, so first-serve, first-contact. When we do those things well, we can score a lot of points and play really well,” he added. “We’ve got five seniors, a couple of juniors, a couple of sophomores and a few freshmen sprinkled in there. It’s a good mix. We seem to be very well-rounded. We’ve got good players at every position and that gives us a chance to compete every match.”

Shadyside jumped out to huge leads in the first two sets and breezed from there. The Tigers built leads of 11-1 in the opening set and 13-1 in the second. The third set was knotted at 6 before a 12-0 run sealed the deal.

“Scoring early and getting off to big leads is huge,” Mercer continued. “When you have a quick start you feel good about yourself right off the bat. It breeds confidence.”

Shadyside had eight players with two or more kills. Senior Aubrey Nippert led the way with four. She also added four digs and one of the Tigers’ 13 serving aces.

“Our blocking was good and we did a nice job of closing that block by making sure we were in the right spots defensively for the balls that they were slinging at us,” Mercer noted. “I’m not displeased with anything. We played really well. We stayed calm and collected.”

Ali Weatherson added two kills, 14 assists, four digs and a pair of aces. Addasyn Melanko chipped in two kills, four digs and a team-best trio of aces. Molly Boltz charted a team-leading five digs.

“That’s not the way we wanted to start. We’ll chalk it up to first-match jitters and go on from there,” first-year Bellaire head coach Kylie Baker said. “We play River tonight (Tuesday), so the girls better be ready to come out and play.”