The Northampton volleyball team overcame a lethargic start to notch a crucial 5-set divisional win over Easton last Thursday in Pete Schneider Gymnasium 15-25, 30-28, 25-20, 15-10.

Despite some consternation around the team’s play in the first set, head coach Mike Holihan never lost faith. He explained, “I do believe in them to fight until the bitter end. It was a roller coaster today, but finally the team that I know showed up in the fifth set. They (Easton) keep the ball alive. They’re scrappy. It wears other teams down when we do it to them. They did it to us tonight.”

The lack of energy was apparent to everyone in the gym as some of the Northampton faithful half-joked about the Kids needing another cup of coffee.

The K-Kids seemed to right the ship in the second set as they gradually built a 21-18 lead forcing Easton to use their first timeout. The Rovers were able to save a set point at 24-23 and then force Northampton to save set points at 25-24, 27-26, and 28-27.

The Kids finally closed the set out on a dramatic final point that saw a diving dig by Lizzy Sheldon and an authoritative kill by fellow captain Morgan Chandler.

Northampton trailed 11-8 early in set three, but an 8-point run, mostly on Sheldon’s serve gave the Kids the lead and Easton was never able to get closer than 4 points.

The fourth set was forgettable from a Northampton perspective, but as Holihan pointed out, the team finally played to their potential in the fifth and deciding set.

The Kids struggled with the Rovers’ serves most of the night, so Holihan was forced to adjust his alignment as much as possible to get Claire Erdman into a receiving position. Erdman responded by leading Northampton with 27 digs to go along with her team-high 12 kills.

Chandler and Quinn Micheli both had 9 kills and Claire Luckenbach chipped in 8. Addison Morgan had 45 assists and 15 digs. Sheldon totaled 26 digs. Micheli had 19 and Leah Everhart tallied 18.

Chandler spoke about the team’s perseverance, “It was important to just get our energy back and our communication. Not getting down when we lost those points. We all knew that we had to change our energy and come back.”

Northampton is 6-3 overall on the season and 5-3 in EPC, which is currently good for eighth place in the conference. This week they have a pair of matches they should win, at Whitehall before the football game on Friday and home for PM West on Tuesday.