The Northwestern Lehigh High School girls volleyball program reached a couple of milestones last season with its first ever win over Notre Dame (Green Pond) and a win in the first round of districts.

The Lady Tigers finished 12-4 in the Colonial League and 13-10 overall as they look to continue moving forward in 2025.

Head coach Mike Maston believes that his team is ready to play tougher competition during the regular season, which will prepare it for the difficult postseason. In addition to the usual difficult Colonial League schedule against teams like Notre Dame and Southern Lehigh, the schedule has tough nonleague games against larger schools like Nazareth and Freedom to get players used to playing tough teams.

“I think that we have to face these tough teams so we can get better ourselves,” said Maston. “We have a good team and I’m looking forward to them making more progress this season.

The team lost key players like Elyse Browning, Shannon Green, Bailey Murray and Norah Silfies, but this year’s team still has players with a good amount of varsity experience. Seniors Alex Diehl and Lily Kinnon have the leadership skills that are going to be needed with a roster that has 10 freshmen.

“We’ve been more competitive each season and I think that we can be even more competitive,” said Maston. “We kept 10 freshmen, so we’re going to be very young, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be competitive.”

Among the younger players who will be stepping into bigger roles are sophomores Lacey Clymer, Kayla Schafer, and Jessica Unrath.

“The young players are working really hard, and I think they have a lot of talent,” said Diehl. “They’ve already improved a lot and are learning from the older players on the team.”

In addition to getting their first win over Notre Dame last season, the Tigers came close to beating the Crusaders on their home court as well for a season sweep. Beating Southern Lehigh, a perennial powerhouse in the Colonial League, is next on the agenda for the Lady Tigers.

“We keep getting better and we were really excited when we beat Notre Dame last season,” said Lily Kinnon. “Now, we have to just keep getting better and get back to the playoffs and go deeper than we did last season.”