Recently Crossing 1,500 Assists, St. C.’s Saunders Leading Red Devils Attack
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ST. CLAIRSVILLE -- The St. Clairsville Red Devils swept through the Harrison Central Huskies in the Ohio Division IV, East 1 sectional volleyball tournament earlier this week, and Monday, St. C. will host John Glenn in the district semifinals.
At the heart of the Red Devils' efforts this season-- efforts that also include an OVAC 4A championship just this past weekend-- has been setter Ava Saunders, who has served up so many kills this year that the senior eclipsed not one but two big benchmarks.
Saunders crossed over 1,000 career assists in St. Clairsville's very first game of the year against Monroe Central, and last Saturday, in the OVAC 4A Finals against Martins Ferry, Saunders went over 1,500 in her Red Devil career.
"She’s set for us for three years now," St. Clairsville head coach Steve Harris said. "First game of the season, she set her 1,000th assist. In the OVAC final game, she hit over 1,500 assists. We’ve also had a backup setter, who’s a freshman this year, who has 150 assists. So, it maybe took her a little longer, but we need a backup setter. We have to have somebody else ready to come in if something ever happens. So she lost a couple personally, but as far as the team goes, we spread it around.
"It’s a heck of an accomplishment. We’ve really had to develop our offense. All of our hitters have been getting better and better, and this last week with all the end-of-season stuff, it’s worked. And our hitters each year have gotten better and better and gotten more efficient and more swings and more kills. The biggest part of that comes back to [Saunders] and her efficiency and her quality of setting. It’s really been fun to see over the last three years."
Saunders entered the season with 992 career assists.
"I’ve been trying to work as hard as I can," the senior said. "It is my last year, but my team has also helped me tremendously, getting that goal, and I couldn’t do it without a pass or a kill. I had no idea I was hitting that 1,500 milestone, but I’m really proud of our team and how they’ve helped me get there and how they supported me through everything."
Setting up the Red Devils attack for three years has been a long journey for Saunders and her coach, who have both seen a lot of improvement from Saunders, a three-year captain.
"It’s the consistency-- we know what we’re getting," Harris said of Saunders. "The hitters are familiar with her, have an idea of where she’s going with the ball and what she wants, what we’re doing with our offense. Her biggest accomplishment in my eyes, and all credit to her, is we evaluated and discussed her strengths and her weaknesses as a setter after last year, and she really worked this summer to change a little bit of her setting habits and to really, really refine and do some things different that took a lot of effort and a lot of work. And it’s been noticeable this year."
"[Harris] told me that I needed to get my hands quicker, so the ball would release faster, so the hitters could have a faster approach," Saunders said. "I went up to Pittsburgh and had a bunch of clinics that I went to, and they gave me a big eye-opener on what I need to get better at and the way to improve myself not just for myself but for our success as a team."
St. Clairsville is seeded third in the District tournament, and are looking forward to hosting John Glenn, the No. 7 seed.
"It’s fun to coach when the girls want to be here and they’re playing hard and they have goals," Harris said. "And it’s been really rewarding for me. And it’s been rewarding for them. We have six seniors this year, we have three juniors, so we have an older team. I think they understand all the work they’ve put in over the last three years that I’ve been here to get to this point. And we were at this point last year. We had a home game, we earned it last year, and we lost. So that’s been a goal for us, to kind of redeem ourselves and get back to this point."
"We’re very excited," Saunders said. "I think we’ve reached the point in the season where we’re all just nagging at each other because it’s just been four months of just pushing and pushing. We’re all just trying to get as far as we can, not letting anything go, and pushing ourselves as hard as we can in practice."
St. Clairsville is now 19-3 on the season. One way or another, Monday will be the Red Devils' last home game of the season, with District Finals taking place at neutral sites. Anyone who ventures down to St. Clairsville High School on Monday, though, will certainly spy a certain setter with 1,500 assists and counting in the middle of the action. The Red Devils are counting on it.