As the regular season enters its final week, the Northampton boys volleyball team is on a hot streak, having won five straight matches and 7 of their last 8 to clinch a district playoff berth and position themselves for possible EPC tournament qualification.

On Tuesday night, they overcame a pesky Southern Lehigh squad in five sets, 23-25, 25-20, 25-16, 19-25, 15-6 to push their record to 10-5 overall and 6-3 in the EPC.

The first set was tight until the Spartans opened up a 23-18 lead late. The K-Kids were able to battle back to within 23-24, but were unable to extend the set.

The next two sets were closely contested early on with Northampton holding leads of 17-16 and 14-13 near the midpoints before surging late to win them both.

The Spartans jumped out early in the fourth set and never looked back as they equalized and forced a decisive race to 15 points in the final set of the night.

Although Southern Lehigh should have carried momentum and confidence into the final action of the night, the K-Kids were the more composed squad as they took advantage of the Spartans’ errors and got some key kills from Matt Gehringer and Blake Youwakim to win handily.

Head coach Sue Arndt addressed the shifting fortunes late in the match, “When they get frazzled, things like the fourth set happen. But when they settle down and they just play well as a team and the movement’s there and the talk is there, and the energy is there, it’s a whole different ballgame.”

Captain Logan Berger once again led the way offensively and defensively, notching 13 kills and 13 digs. He also chipped in 3 blocks for good measure. Youwakim recorded 11 kills and 9 digs. Gehringer also reached double-digits in kills with 10. He also led the team with 4 service aces.

Cam Coccetti and Caden Dempsey led in assists with 16 and 14 respectively. Kiernan Lieb was tops on the team with 4 blocks.

The K-Kids face a daunting finishing stretch with Freedom (12-2), Parkland (9-4), and Whitehall (12-2) to close out the regular season.

While Northampton secured a district bid with their win against Abington Heights on Monday, their grip on the sixth and final EPC spot is tenuous. Allen is a game back in the loss column at 4-4 but has a much easier slate of matches to end the season. The Canaries also hold the tiebreaker against the Kids by virtue of winning their regular season contest.