The Northampton girls volleyball started off their 2021 campaign by playing four matches over the first six days of their season. While the Kids came away from those matches with a 2-2 record, they faced some fierce competition.

On Monday, they traveled to Parkland to take on the second-ranked team in the state of PA. While the Kids lost in straight sets 25-10, 25-16, and 25-13, head coach Mike Holihan was not displeased with his squad’s performance.

“That’s probably one of the best teams I’ve ever seen during my time playing and coaching,” he said. “The passes were on point every time and they’ve got some big hitters. The scores weren’t great but our girls played defense. They had a ton of digs tonight. We may not have come out with a victory, but no one’s hanging their head on this side of the court.”

Northampton was competitive early in sets 2 and 3. They were tied at 12-all in the second and 9-all in the third before the Trojans pulled away.

Payton Reuber and Molly Hughes had 3 kills each to lead the K-Kids. Hughes also had 8 assists and 6 digs. Sister Morgan Hughes led the team with 10 digs. Naomi Nebiyou contributed 8 digs and a pair of kills.

Last Wednesday, the team delivered Holihan a dramatic 5-set win over Central Catholic in his head coaching debut.

Holihan noted, “A lot of firsts in that one, my first win, my first yellow card, and our first win over Central in program history.”

The set scores were 20-25, 25-22, 29-27, 18-25, and 15-11.

Reuber racked up 16 kills and a pair of blocks in the match. Nebiyou had 11 kills and 11 digs. Molly Hughes had 31 assists, 8 digs, and 5 aces. Morgan Hughes had 15 digs.

The other results from this past week were a 25-11, 25-19, 25-13 win against Dieruff on Friday and a 25-20, 25-12, 26-24 loss at Emmaus on Saturday.

The Kids will have a lot of court time over the next week. On Friday, they travel to Blue Mountain for a non-EPC contest. They follow that up with a tournament at Southern Lehigh on Saturday which will have no bearing on their official record, but will give the team valuable reps. On Monday and Tuesday, they host Allen and Pocono Mountain West respectively.