Last Thursday, the Northampton boys volleyball team secured a 25-13, 25-22, 25-16 victory over Southern Lehigh to win their third-straight match to open the 2021 season.

In the first set, the K-Kids jumped out to an 8-1 lead and never looked back. The Spartans only won two points on their own serve.

The second set was much more competitive. Southern Lehigh jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead. A five-point run on Keller Repasch’s serve put Northampton up 12-10. The Spartans battled back and led 21-20 before the Kids got a key side out to stop the momentum and go on to claim the set.

In the third set, another five-point run that expanded the lead from 7-6 to 12-6 was enough of a cushion to allow Northampton to cruise home.

Alex Schoenen had a strong all-around match with 8 kills, 3 aces, and 5 digs. Repasch dished out 24 assists and had 10 digs. Kody Whiteman led the team with 14 digs. Jackson Fehnel had 8 kills and 9 digs.

Head coach Sue Arndt summarized the performance.

“We came off a hard match on Tuesday night (4-set win over Freedom) which was very fast-paced,” she said. “They have a tendency to get caught up in the slowness of the game. They walked off the court going, ‘We can’t let this happen again, we have to pick up the pace.’”

The Kids followed up Thursday’s win with 3-sets sweeps over Allen and Dieruff on Friday and Saturday to extend their winning streak to 5 matches.

On Monday, in a battle between the last two unbeaten 3A teams in District XI, Parkland beat Northampton 25-13, 25-19, 26-24. The K-Kids’ 5-1 record has them atop the Northampton County Division of the EPC and in second place in the district power rankings one-third of the way through the regular season.

On Wednesday, Northampton honored Kody Whiteman and Bradley Chatenka before their Senior Night contest against Easton. The result of the match occurred after Press deadlines.

The K-Kids head north on Friday for a match against Pocono Mountain East. They return home to play Nazareth Saturday morning and then Pocono Mountain West on Monday. The Pocono Mountain teams are 0-6 and 1-6 respectively. The Blue Eagles are 4-2 on the season with straight set losses to Emmaus and Whitehall, two strong teams from the Lehigh County Division.