The Northampton boys volleyball team has continued its streak of good play since the returns of captains Logan Berger and Cam Coccetti. Last Thursday, they took a set off of undefeated and top-ranked Emmaus and on Monday they waxed Liberty in straight sets 25-21, 25-15, 25-14.

The Hurricanes got off to quick starts in both set 1 and set 2, leading 5-1 and 7-3 respectively. However, the K-Kids won the race to 10 points on both occasions and never trailed one they had claimed the lead.

Head coach Sue Arndt praised the development of her squad, “They truly are becoming students of the game. What we’re finding out in the league this year is that you can’t look past anybody. We have to scout and we have to execute and tonight they did a really good job of executing what needed to be done.”

Arndt explained that the game plan revolved around serving deep to take advantage of Liberty’s struggles on serve receive. Offensively, Northampton drew the Liberty block to the middle of the court, opening up the outside hitters with one-on-one matchups.

One of beneficiaries of this approach was sophomore Matt Gehringer, who has emerged as a dynamic presence on the outside over the past few weeks.

Arndt described his evolution, “He came in with the thinking that he was going to be as good as a senior – Blake (Youwakim). He had to learn how to use different tools in the game, like if the set’s not where it needs to be, he’s got to tip a roll. We’ve worked on getting him to slow down. He’s maturing in the game and that will help him get to the next level, which he absolutely can do.”

The win brings Northampton’s record for the season to 6-5 and 5-3 in the EPC. The K-Kids are currently eighth in the district standings and sixth in the league, where the top six teams make the conference tournament.

As Arndt alluded to, the night-to-night results in the EPC are unpredictable. The Kids swept Dieruff last week and then the Huskies turned around and beat 7-1 Whitehall in 4 sets. The Zephyrs had already beaten defending champion Parkland early in the year.

This week Northampton has a pair of road games against Bethlehem Catholic (0-12) and Dieruff (7-5) before returning to Pete Schneider Gymnasium to host District 2 Abington Heights (7-1) on Monday and Southern Lehigh (6-4) on Tuesday.