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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

HOOVER – In the first of six county matchups in area play for each team, the Spain Park Jaguars and Helena Huskies looked to carry over their momentum they gained beating teams outside the area into Class 6A, Area 8 play.

Spain Park came in fresh off a 3-2 weekend at the Tournament of Champions, including sweeps of Cleveland and Pleasant Valley and a 2-1 victory over Alexandria. The Jags also had a four-match win streak entering that tournament, including big wins over Hoover and Mountain Brook.

As for Helena, it was riding its own big wave after beating Briarwood and Class 7A Oak Mountain just one week after taking Thompson to the limit in a five-set thriller.

However, only one team could walk out of the matchup 1-0 in area play, and that was the Jags, who swept the Huskies 3-0 on Tuesday, Sept. 10 at Spain Park High School.

Spain Park started out the match by taking the lead in the first set and holding off Helena from there to see out the win in the opening frame.

The Jags’ 25-18 first-set win established the tone for the rest of the match, but that didn’t mean the Huskies went out quietly.

The next two sets were closer than the first, starting with the second set, where Helena sat just a couple of points behind Spain Park in the closing moments of the set.

However, the Jags held off the pressure from the visitors and saw out the 25-22 win in the second set to go up 2-0 in the match.

Helena made the third set a tight affair as well and came extremely close to extending the match by winning the set and sending the teams to a fourth set.

The Huskies trailed just 24-23 with Spain Park on match point, but just like the second set, the Jags held fast and took the 25-23 win.

That secured the 3-0 sweep for Spain Park to give the Jags the win in their first area match of the season.

With the win, Spain Park is 12-4 on the season and will travel to Pelham on Thursday, Sept. 12 at 6 p.m. for its next area match.

At that same time, the 8-4 Helena Huskies will take on the Chelsea Hornets on the road as both teams search for the first area wins of their campaigns.