While personal accomplishments are all well and good, senior Logan McGinley wanted to focus on the big picture after a tough loss to Nazareth on Friday night.

The Zephyr volleyball team had just been swept by the Blue Eagles, and McGinley was circumspect in his answers about the personal milestone he achieved a couple of games ago, versus what they needed to accomplish as a unit.

The senior outside hitter had just surpassed the 1,000 kill mark in their win over Southern Lehigh on May 1. That mark had come on the heels of setter Joe Maamari eclipsing 1,000 assists in his illustrious career.

“It was a great feeling and all, but I’m just looking more at the bigger goal, and that’s winning a championship,” said McGinley. “Milestones are great, but it’s about the team.”

They had defeated Nazareth 3-0 on their home floor earlier in the year, but the Blue Eagles were more resolute on senior night. They won 21-25, 14-25 and 24-26 to hand the Zephs their second loss of the season. They’re now 14-2 overall and 11-2 in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference, trailing Emmaus and Parkland who sit first and second, respectively, as of May 7.

The Zephs had a chance to extend the match in a seesaw third set. After trailing by five points at 13-18, the Zephs began to chip away, finally tying the game on a Devin Martinez kill to make it 21-21. They had outscored the Blue Eagles 8-3 over that stretch, but Nazareth regrouped and went up by three points after that run until McGinley swatted a ball to the floor to knot it at 24-24. But that’s all the closer they got as the Blue Eagles scored the next two points, completing the sweep.

“Nazareth came with a lot of energy today,” said McGinley who felt that they may have underestimated the Blue Eagles.

“Next time we’ll come prepared and ready,” said McGinley.

Head coach George Cowitch believed that some of that extra energy may have been a byproduct of senior night. He also said that Raymond J. Nunamaker Gymnasium has been an historically tough place for them to play.

It also didn’t help that they were their own worst enemy in the first set.

“We made fifteen unforced errors, and that’s not like us,” said Cowitch. “We haven’t really done that, and we played catch-up all night.”

Cowitch believed that they should have prevailed in that first set. He also made some adjustments in the second set, but they couldn’t get anything rolling against a determined Nazareth squad.

In that third set, Cowitch said that they fought hard, it just didn’t fall their way. They just couldn’t get that point when they needed it.

“We weren’t on our game and they were,” said Cowitch.

Cowitch believed that his team’s off night, combined with Nazareth’s near-perfect play, created the right atmosphere for their second loss of the season.

“You have to give credit to them for that,” said Cowitch. “It’s OK, it’s a blemish, but we’ll move on.”

McGinley said that their focus will be winning every game the rest of the season and beyond.

Cowitch also believes that this loss will be one they can rebound from, and then apply what they learned down the road. A regular season loss means you get to play another game. A loss in the district playoffs ends your season. That’s the difference, said Cowitch.