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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

IRONDALE – The Spain Park Jaguars continued their strong start to the season with their first road win of the young campaign against the Shades Valley Mounties.

The Jags beat the Mounties 3-1 on Thursday, Aug. 30 at Shades Valley High School to secure their second victory of the week.

Spain Park came into the matchup fresh off a statement sweep of defending Class 6A state champion Mountain Brook and built off that momentum with another victorious effort.

However, it was Shades Valley that started the matchup on top after an extremely tight first set came down to the wire.

Needing extra points to separate the two sides, the Mounties took both points to secure the 26-24 victory in the opening frame.

Now facing a 1-0 deficit in the match, the Jags shook off the early adversity and saw out the rest of the match from there.

Spain Park established a more comfortable lead in the second set as it took a 25-19 win to knot up the match at 1-1.

The rest of the sets were closer than the second-set result as Shades Valley didn’t go down without a fight.

The Jags held off the home side to take the lead in the match thanks to a 25-21 win in the third set.

That set up Spain Park with an opportunity to clinch the match victory in the fourth set, and it did just that.

The Jags faced another tight battle from the Mounties as only two points separated the teams on Spain Park’s match point, but the set tipped to the visitors. The 25-22 win for the Jags sealed the 3-1 victory on the road.

Spain Park now sits on 6-2 having won its last two games with one more week to go until area play begins on Sept. 12.

The Jags will have a tough rivalry matchup on their hands as they travel to Hoover to face the Bucs on Wednesday, Sept. 4 at 6 p.m. They will return home the next night to take on the Calera Eagles at 5:30 p.m.