The Northampton girls volleyball team was riding a bit of momentum coming into Monday’s match in Pete Schneider Gymnasium against Bethlehem Catholic.

After a rough 0-4 start against teams that are currently a combined 21-0 on the season, the K-Kids rebounded with straight set wins over Allen and Stroudsburg. However, they were unable to build on that streak as the Golden Hawks prevailed 25-15, 25-19, 25-17.

Northampton got off to a sluggish start as Becahi was able to consistently find the open area between the Kids’ block and their backline. The score was 23-12 in the first set before Northampton won their first point on serve. “It’s these Monday games. I think they’re just not focused.”, said head coach Mike Holihan. “Who likes Mondays, right? Historically for me as a coach, it’s hard to get them moving.”

The second set started poorly for the home team as well. A late 5-point run from 21-11 down made the set score respectable.

Northampton played well to begin the third set and held a 12-11 lead midway through the proceedings. From there, the Golden Hawks won 9 of the next 11 points to put the match on ice.

Holihan homed in on the reason for the Kids’ struggles, “Height. We’re small. Like real small. I didn’t think it was going to be that big of a deal this season. We weren’t big enough and I have to find something as a coach. Some kind of system to try to make it work. It’s our biggest issue right now.”

The situation is more pronounced because of Northampton’s difficult schedule. If the EPC played a round robin format like in soccer and field hockey, the K-Kids would stand a decent chance of cracking the top 8 and qualifying for the conference tournament. Home-and-home matches against division rivals Parkland, Central, and Emmaus, plus division crossover games versus Liberty, Becahi, and Nazareth are going to be a tough hill to climb.

For the Becahi match, Morgan Chandler led the team with 6 kills. Addison Morgan, Alyx Cole, and Quinn Micheli had 4 apiece. Morgan also had 21 assists and 4 digs. Lizzy Sheldon was tops for the K-Kids with 14 digs and 3 aces. Jesse Domchek had 8 digs and 5 kills. Claire Erdman recorded 8 digs and 3 kills.