SARAHSVILLE — It was a matchup of power vs. power, but Shenandoah High tossed in near-flawless serving and excellent ball movement to hand visiting Union Local its first loss of the season, with the Lady Zeps sweeping to a 25-20, 25-14, 25-22 victory before a large turnout in Sarahsville.

Both teams were ranked in the top 10 in the latest OHSVCA state coaches poll ­– Union Local fifth in Division III and Shenandoah 10th in Division IV — and they have waged a season-long battle for the No. 1 seed in next week’s OVAC Class 3A Tournament.

The Lady Zeps — now 18-1 — not only avenged a season-opening three-set sweep (28-26, 25-16, 25-22) – they snapped the Lady Jets’ string of 49 consecutive sets won.

It took a near-flawless performance to turn the tables, thus Shenandoah coach Megan Grywalski could find little fault in her team’s performance.

“We eliminated the errors we had the first time we played them,” said the Lady Zeps’ coach. “Our hitters were so creative tonight. We went down the line and cross court and our setters kept them off-balance by moving the ball around.

“Our serving was phenomenal,” added Grywalski, whose team was 67-of-69 with nine aces. “We’re so much better at serving than we were last year and we’re putting the ball in the right spots.”

UL coach Kaye Sechrest, whose team is now 17-1, simply offered a tip of the cap to the winners.

“They came to play and played well,” acknowledged the Jets’ boss. “When you play a good team, they’re going to hit to your weaknesses and you have to be ready for that.

“We did a few things wrong, and they were the better team tonight,” she continued. “My girls didn’t give up…they just got the momentum and we couldn’t take it away, but that’s volleyball.

“The good thing is, we may see them again next week,” Sechrest added, referring to a possible “rubber” match if both teams reach the OVAC finals.

Shenandoah was the aggressor from the start, racing to a 6-1 lead in the first set, but UL battled back to a 9-9 tie. The Zeps used an 8-2 run to rebuild the lead to 17-11, but again the Jets surged within two at 21-19 only to have Shenandoah scored four of the final five points to win the set, 25-20.

Set two see-sawed early as Shenandoah junior Mya Leach and UL senior Torre Kildow continued to deliver at the net, but the Zeps tallied four straight to begin to take control at 10-6. UL was still within four, 17-13, but the Zeps caught fire with eight of the last nine points for a solid 25-14 win and a 2-0 lead.

It looked like the Jets would stay alive as they worked their way to leads of 15-9 and 20-15 in the third set, but the Zeps were up to the challenge and roared back with 10 of the final 12 points to complete the dramatic sweep, 25-22.

Mya Leach finished with 13 kills to lead the Zeps, but she had plenty of net support as sophomore Klara Anderson tallied eight and freshman Brenna Leach had seven while junior Brylee May and senior Charli Wickham each had five. Junior Heather Merry dished out 24 assists and Mya Leach had a dozen along with three service aces.

Defensively, senior Grace Wikander led with 11 digs followed by Mya Leach with nine, senior MaKenna Clift with eight and junior Kadence Noll with seven. May recorded three blocks.

While Kildow finished with a whopping 27 kills, she received solid support from sophomore Olivia Wortman who had 12. Senior Kelly Gress was charted with 40 assists while on defense, Kildow collected 21 digs and junior Julie Broussard had 13.