On Saturday, the Northampton boys volleyball team took up the challenge against defending (2019) EPC and District XI champion Whitehall.

While the K-Kids lost in four sets: 18-25, 22-25, 25-22, 21-25, head coach Sue Arndt was encouraged by the team’s performance.

“They played hardball and we stuck with them and that’s all that matters to me right now,” she said. “Could we have won that match? Yeah, we could have. We just need to maintain our levels instead of going through the highs and lows.”

The first set was uneventful from the Kids’ perspective. They led 2-1, but Whitehall slowly built a three-point lead that they held until a late 5 to 2 run yielded the final margin.

In the second set, Northampton erased an early Zephyrs’ lead and went ahead 16-15. The score was tied at 19 when Whitehall ran off three straight points to give them a sufficient cushion to claim the set.

The third frame seemed like it was going to go the same way as the first two. The Zephyrs held a small advantage throughout and when Arndt used her first timeout of the set, the K-Kids trailed 18-20. Northampton was able to get a side-out and win the next two service points to jump into the lead. After being tied at 22, the Kids reeled off the next three points to claw back into the match.

Unfortunately, they were unable to capitalize on the momentum of winning the third set. Whitehall went up 3-0 at the start of the fourth set. The Zephyrs’ 6th through 9th points were all due to service errors by Northampton, which derailed any chances they had to make a run. They did get the score to the same 18-20 as in the previous set, but no winning run came out of the timeout this time.

Alex Schoenen led the K-Kids with 10 kills and chipped in 7 digs. Keller Repasch had 30 assists, 6 kills, and 10 digs. Kody Whiteman was tops on the team with 18 digs. Jackson Fehnel had 7 kills and 13 digs. Johnny Martinez and Duane Milnes had 8 and 7 kills respectively.

Northampton wrapped up its regular season with a win over Liberty, avenging a loss to the Hurricanes a couple of weeks ago. Their 14-4 record for the season is the program’s best in the EPC era.

The Kids will be making their first appearance in the EPC tournament since 2015. As the fourth seed, they will host Easton tonight. Northampton beat the Rovers in straight sets on April 14 in their regular season meeting.

If they move on to the semifinals they will face the top seed, either Whitehall or Parkland, on Friday. The EPC final is on Saturday at 11 a.m. at Central Catholic HS.

The K-Kids will also be the fourth seed when the district quarterfinals start next Thursday, unless they claim the top seed by winning the EPC tournament. If they stay in the four spot, they will host Easton again.