Although the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference does not crown a regular season champion in boys volleyball, last Wednesday’s finale between 16-1 Northampton and 17-1 Whitehall produced an atmosphere worthy of a championship game.

Fans of both teams packed the stands of Pete Schneider Gymnasium and vociferously supported their squads, but after a 25-19, 25-13, 25-21 sweep, the K-Kids claimed, if not a title, bragging rights and the top seed in the EPC tournament.

Northampton jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead, built it to 9-3 and never led by less than five points. Landon Nickischer had the finishing kill that put the first set into the Kids’ ledger.

Northampton never trailed in the second set either, although things started out much tighter than they ended up. The Kids led 8-7 when they went on a 13-2 run keyed by strong service rotations by Johnny Martinez and Duane Milnes.

In the third set, the K-Kids completed the theme of never having trailed at any point in any set. In fact, the only tie scores during the match were 0-0 as each set started. Northampton quickly went up 5-1, but the Zephyrs narrowed the gap to 12-11 near the set’s midpoint. Jackson Fehnel put the punctuation mark on the match when his spike glanced off a Whitehall defender and carried into the back wall of the gym.

An ecstatic Fehnel recounted, “That’s the best we ever did. To do it in three (sets), that was crazy. We knew it was going to be a good game.” He added, “Everyone’s working together. We’re all a team and we came here for the win and we got it.”

Head coach Sue Arndt put the match in perspective.

“What these boys have taught me is that I don’t have to worry about them. They were calm, cool, and collected,” she said. “I was calm, cool, and collected. They knew their level had to be up and they came in strong. As far as the win goes, it’s a great win, but now we have playoffs.”

Alex Schoenen led the team with 9 kills and chipped in 10 digs and 4 blocks. Fehnel led the team with 11 digs and had 7 kills. Keller Repasch had 32 assists, 4 kills, and 4 blocks. Martinez notched 7 kills, 7 digs, and 4 blocks. Milnes had 10 digs and 4 kills. Nickischer had 6 kills. Austin Sheytah had 6 digs.

Unsurprisingly, the de facto EPC regular season champions had several players named as EPC All-Stars. Jackson Fehnel and Alex Schoenen earned first team honors, while Keller Repasch made the second team and Johnny Martinez made the third team.

Yesterday’s EPC semifinal against fifth seed Easton occurred too late to make press deadlines. The tournament final is Friday at 6 p.m. at Allen High School. The winner of the Kids’ semifinal will play the victor of the other semifinal between Parkland and Whitehall. Admission is $6 for those under age 65.

Full coverage of Northampton’s EPC tournament will appear in next week’s edition. Districts start May 19 and the Kids will host a quarterfinal game.