The Northampton girls volleyball team overcame a two-set deficit against Nazareth on Monday to force a fifth set, but the comeback fell short as the Blue Eagles took the final set to win 25-18, 25-22, 22-25, 19-25, 15-10.

“It was a tale of two teams,” said head coach Mike Holihan. “I don’t know what team was here for the first two sets, but I sure liked the team that I got in sets three and four and the last half of set five. Losing in five stinks, but I’d rather lose in five than in three. We learned a lot about ourselves.”

In the first two sets, the K-Kids struggled with serve receive and adjusting to Nazareth’s smaller front line tipping over the block instead of taking full swings. Northampton actually held a 21-18 lead in the second set before succumbing.

In the third set, the Kids were the team that pulled the late rally as they trailed 17-20 and stormed back to extend the match.

Northampton dominated the fourth set, going up 21-11 before the Blue Eagles were able to close the gap.

In the final set, Nazareth’s big hitters took over as they pounded their way to an early 11-3 lead. The K-Kids staged a late comeback to make things interesting at 13-10 but fell short in the end.

Morgan Chandler led Northampton’s offense as she amassed 15 kills. Claire Erdman and Izzy Pecuch both tallied 10. Addison Morgan had 41 assists and 23 digs. Lizzy Sheldon was tops on the team with 28 digs. Erdman had 13.

In positive new for the team this past week, the K-Kids swept North Schuylkill on Saturday for their ninth win of the season, securing a district playoff berth. They are still in the running for a spot in EPCs with a 7-6 conference record through Tuesday’s games. Historically, it takes at least 10 conference wins to make the tournament, which would mean Northampton needs to sweep its final three matches.

The result of yesterday’s match against Freedom occurred after Press deadlines. The Kids remaining contests are Monday at Easton and home for Bethlehem Catholic on Wednesday.

Setter Addison Morgan eclipsed the career 1,000 assist milestone in the match against Nazareth. A celebration was slated to happen on the Kids’ home floor on Wednesday.