The Northampton boys volleyball team defeated Pocono Mountain East on Wednesday, April 26, at home inside the Pete Schneider gymnasium.

The Konkrete Kids won the match 3-0 en route to their seventh win of the season, but it wasn’t an easy task.

“Some of our main guys were out in this one so we had members of our team really step up,” said head coach David Faust. “For a first-year team they were not bad by any stretch of the imagination. So coming in here, we couldn’t slack off. Our guys communicated well and it would have been easy to let our guard down but they didn’t.”

The Kids got up to an early lead in the first set outscoring PM East 17-11. PM East surged a bit of a rally in the late going, scoring five points in a row but the rally wasn’t enough as Northampton won the first set 25-18.

The second set saw Northampton dominate the early going once more en route to the team leading 20-9. PM East once again rallied a bit of a comeback scoring seven points before a nice play at the net by Carson Keefe ended the PM East comeback. Northampton won the second set 25-16.

The third and final set saw the most back-and-fourth action between the two teams as the score remained within two points up until the scoreboard hit 14-12. That’s when Northampton began to break away.

Nicholas Lessig scored some key blocks in the set as the Kids came away with a 25-17 victory, ending the match 3-0.

Justin Monte was all over the court en route to recording seven kills and 12 digs. Brandon Caffrey chipped in with 10 kills and six digs, while Kyle Whitman and Austin Frey added eight and six digs respectively.

“We have a ways to go,” said Faust. “Would we like to be undefeated? Of course, but we have the four losses and we’re looking to get more wins. We’re a young team, we don’t have many seniors moving on so we are definitely on the up-and-up and we’re going to work to get better.”

Northampton will have a rematch against Emmaus at home on Wednesday, May 3. The match will also feature the team’s first ever “Volley for Valor” event, where the team will hold a ceremony before the match honoring past, present, and future military members.

Festivities begin after the JV match at around 5:15 p.m., with the varsity match beginning around 5:45 p.m.

The Kids won a thrilling game over Allen on Friday, April 28, that went five sets. The Kids won game one 25-22 and game two 25-14 before Allen rallied to win game three 25-20 and game four 25-23. Northampton took a tight game five 15-13.

Brandon Caffrey had 18 kills, five digs and three blocks while Andrew Faust chipped in with nine kills, three digs and three blocks.