The Northampton girls volleyball team opened its season with home-and-home matches against Freedom. Last Friday evening, they dropped the match in straight sets in Bethlehem. Returning home on Monday, they took the first set from the Patriots 25-23 before eventually succumbing in sets two through four, 9-25, 18-25, 17-25.

The team struggled with their communication and coordination, leading to several points where the ball hit the floor without someone making a play on it. Head coach Jess Finlayson noted that as well and mentioned, “Tips right over the block, passes that weren’t necessarily to someone. It was a little rough. We’re getting there. Second match out of 10, we’ll see where it goes.”

This year’s team is led by senior tri-captains, Alexa Barowski, Mya Cascario, and Lindsey Nemeth. Senior Taylor Williams is the is the only other returning varsity player from the 2019 squad that earned the K-Kids’ first ever district berth and district playoff wins. They were 2 sets from qualifying for states.

Junior Molly Zweifel, and sophomores Angela Fisher, Molly Hughes, Morgan Hughes, Naomi Nebiyou, and Payton Reuber all move up from last year’s JV team to round out the varsity roster.

Molly Hughes, the team’s setter, has the unenviable task of replacing two-time EPC All-Star Sydney Heffner as the point guard of the offense. Finlayson praised the sophomore stating, “She’s doing a good job. She’s doing better than I thought she’d be doing. I didn’t think she’d be loud enough and vocal enough, but she is being very vocal.”

While the move to the Northampton Division of the EPC gets the K-Kids away from perennial powers Parkland and Emmaus, there are no easy wins to be had on the current schedule. Liberty, Freedom, and Beca were the top three teams in the Steel Division and Nazareth appears to have rebounded after an off year that saw them miss districts in 2019.

Next up for Northampton is a pair of matches against Easton. The Red Rovers were a middle of the pack team in the Steel Division last year, so the breakthrough win the Kids seek could be right around the corner.

The Kids played the Rovers in two recent games, knocking off Easton 3-0 on Oct. 3 by scores of 25-10, 25-16, 25-19. The team beat Easton in another contest 3-1, winning with scores of 25-18, 21-25, 26-24, 25-14.