The Northampton boys volleyball team’s bid for the first league title in program history came up just short against Parkland last Friday at Allen High School. The Trojans won in 4 sets, 25-18, 25-17, 20-25, 25-21.

Head coach Sue Arndt described the team’s mood after the match, “They’re very mad at each other right now, because they knew they played tight the first two games, came back, played loose the third and went back at it the fourth. Gotta hand it to Parkland, they served us short and took us out of our quick system off serve receive and just started taking it to the pins (net antennas).”

The K-Kids didn’t play poorly the first two sets, it was more that Parkland dominated the net play winning 34 of their 50 points either by kills or blocks. For the match, the K-Kids hitting percentage was .297 with .300 considered to be excellent.

Northampton did lead early in the second set 7-3, but Parkland went on a 7-2 run that put them in front 12-10 and they never looked back.

The Trojans went up 9-5 in the third set and it looked like the K-Kids were going to get swept. With the exhortations of the orange-shirted throng behind them, they clawed back to take an 11-10 lead and used a late 5-point run to seal the set and get back into the match.

Midway through the fourth set, it looked like Northampton would sustain its momentum and force a fifth and deciding set. They led 14-11 forcing a Trojan timeout. The last K-Kids lead in the set would be at 19-18. Parkland won the next three points and shortly thereafter, the EPC title.

Keller Repasch had a fantastic match overall. In addition to the 36 assists he racked up as the setter, he had 8 kills, 8 digs, and 4 blocks. Jackson Fehnel led the team with 11 kills and had 9 digs. Landon Nickischer and Alex Schoenen both had 9 kills. Schoenen tacked on 9 digs and 4 blocks. Johnny Martinez was tops with 12 digs and he added 7 kills and 3 blocks. Duane Milnes had 7 kills and 7 blocks.

By virtue of winning the league championship, the Trojans claimed the top seed in districts with Northampton falling to the second seed.

The K-Kids’ quest for a banner continues tonight in Pete Schneider Gymnasium when they take on Nazareth at 5:30 in the quarterfinals. Tickets are available through the District XI website, districtxi.com. Northampton beat the Blue Eagles in straight sets on April 21.

The winner of the match will play the winner of Whitehall and Easton in the semifinals on Tuesday. The site has yet to be announced, but it will likely be at Allen High School again.