The 2022 Northampton boys volleyball team had already made a strong case for being the best in program history by posting the best regular season record in the EPC and finishing second in the EPC tournament.

On Tuesday in Catasauqua, they left no doubt as to their place in K-Kids’ volleyball history as they defeated Cement Belt rival Whitehall, 25-23, 20-25, 25-20, 25-14 in the District XI AAA semifinals to clinch the program’s first district finals berth and first trip to the PIAA state tournament.

Senior captain Johnny Martinez commented on the achievement, “It feels like we accomplished something, but we’re not done yet. We still have finals against either Emmaus or Parkland which are both good teams, so we’ve got to get mentally prepared for that.”

It was the K-Kids’ mental toughness that saw them through the match against Whitehall. They trailed in every set, even the three that they won.

In the first set, the Zephyrs held a 13-11 lead at the hallway point and led 19-18 as the set approached its resolution. A three-point burst from 21-21 propelled the Kids to a 24-21 lead and they finally broke through after Whitehall saved two set points.

The Zephyrs built an early 8-3 lead in the second set, but Northampton battled back to tie at 12. The set remained tight as Whitehall eked in front 21-20 before winning the final four points of the set to even the match.

In the third set, a 5-point Northampton run turned a 10-10 tie into a comfortable 15-10 lead. Whitehall never got closer than 4 points during the rest of the set.

When the Zephyrs jumped in front 10-6 in the fourth set, it looked like the match would turn into a 5-set nail-biter. The K-Kids kept calm and quickly equalized at 10. A big block by Jackson Fehnel electrified the crowd and prompted Whitehall to use their first timeout of the set at 15-12. The break did nothing to stymie the Kids’ momentum as they reeled off the next 7 points and cruised home with the win.

Alex Schoenen and Landon Nickischer led Northampton with 9 kills apiece. Martinez had 8 kills and led the team with 5 blocks. Keller Repasch doled out 49 assists. Fehnel and Duane Milnes shared the lead in digs with 9 each.

Head coach Sue Arndt commented on the win, “It feels good. We knew that they were going to bring pressure. We knew where their weaknesses were and we knew what our strengths were and we played to our strengths and tried to get them a little out of their game.”

Across the net for tonight’s district championship game at Catty will be Parkland. The Trojans are responsible for the Kids’ only two losses this year, a 5-setter in the regular season and in the EPC championship game in four sets.

The first round of states will be Tuesday. The time, place, and opponent for the match are dependent on the result of the Parkland game.