When you’re a seventh seed in the deep and talented District 11 3A volleyball tournament, you’re always an underdog.

The classification has two league champions in Panther Valley and Southern Lehigh, and another team – Bethlehem Catholic – that went undefeated in the regular season only to lose in the East Penn Conference finals.

Northwestern knocked off number two seed Panther Valley in the quarterfinals, so facing third seeded Bethlehem Catholic suddenly didn’t seem so daunting.

The semifinal round of districts is a place where Northwestern had not reached in their program’s history and they made their debut in that round Monday night at Catasauqua High School.

The Lady Tigers got off to a strong start when the first serve of the match by Lacey Clymer was perfectly placed for a kill and a quick lead. Kayla Schaffer would serve another ace to give Northwestern a 4-2 lead only to see the Hawks tie the game at 4-4.

Lexi Nagle picked up a kill to make it 5-4 in favor of the Lady Tigers and return serve to her team. Bella Lakatosh’s block gave Northwestern another point and Daisy Stringer delivered an ace to make it 7-4.

Again, Bethlehem Catholic tied the game at seven and then at eight before Madeline Ahner took over serve and using two aces and strong play up front by Jocelyn Bell and Sophia Bedics, led the Hawks to a 15-8 advantage.

From there, Northwestern looked to fight its way back in but was never able to catch up and lost the opening set 25-17.

“We had actually played Beca in a tournament at Northampton during the season and were competitive against them,” said Northwestern head coach Mike Maston. “So the girls came in knowing what to expect and knowing that we can be competitive against them, and I was happy to see how they came out tonight.”

The second set was all Beca with the exception of an ace from Leah Nagle and a strong service run from Alexa George. Bedics had five kills for the Hawks in the set. Northwestern did put on a run late in the set but fell 25-15.

Needing to take the next three sets didn’t seem to faze Northwestern as the Tiger came out in great shape for the third set and opened a 9-5 lead on strong serves by freshman Addie Hoffert.

Neither team grabbed momentum until Beca broke serve to make it 19-19 and Ahner served up four straight winners to take it to 23-19. Northwestern then broke serve but Bethlehem Catholic quickly reversed the trend and were able to pick up the match point on a serve by Piper Ruggiero to win 25-20.

“They found some spots on us that we weren’t covering very well, and they tipped on us very well,” said Maston. “Obviously, it must have been something that they had seen on film. And then we just couldn’t place it well. I think we played them well.

“There were times when we could have been stronger, but the outcome is the outcome and we look forward to next season.”

Northwestern came into the season with a young team after having lost seven seniors from last year’s team that went to the district quarterfinal round.

This year’s roster had just four seniors – Alex Diehl, Lily Kinnon, Leah Nagle, and Danielle Riggan – and were able to work their way through the schedule with a pair of wins over a strong Notre Dame of Green Pond team and have the distinction of being the only team to have won a set against Southern Lehigh, the perennial powerhouse program in volleyball.

“Lily Kinnon had a great year this year and is always a great team leader on the court, always trying to bring the energy up,” said Maston. “When it comes to Leah Nagle, she’s been great. She played all along, six rotations on the right-hand side and controlled a lot of the action throughout the year.

“Dani Riggan missed some time early in the year, but when she came back she was strong and really helped us out in plenty of our matches this year with her serving and every other part of her game.

“And Alex Diehl, we wouldn’t be where we are without her this season, so you have to give it to her for that, and she was a great player for us all season.”

Tigers take down PV in quarterfinal

Size can be misleading.

Take Northwestern volleyball player Daisy Stringer, for example. The junior, outside hitter is only 5-3, but she sure can hit the ball.

Stringer inflicted 17 kills, amassed 22 digs and hit three service aces in last week’s District 11 Class 3A quarterfinal win over Panther Valley.

But it wasn’t just Stringer who played a major role, as the entire Tiger squad came with a lot of energy, said head coach Mike Maston.

That energy was obvious, and the result was a stunning upset as the Tigers, seeded seventh, defeated Panther Valley, seeded second, 3-1.

“This was a huge win tonight,” Maston said. “We always had a tough time playing here (in the Panther Valley gym) but our girls came in ready to play. They were on fire. They had a lot of energy tonight.”

It appeared as if Northwestern completely caught the Panthers off guard in the first game, winning by a lopsided 25-12 score. During one segment, they outscored PV 17-3.

Northwestern won the second game 25-20, lost game three by a 25-22 score, and capped the evening with a 25-18 win in the fourth game.

The momentum from the first game continued to the second, with the Tigers jumping out to an 11-5 lead.

Maston attributes preparation as the main reason for their victory.

During the event, especially in the first game, PV left some large openings in the middle and the Tigers capitalized, directing the ball to the gaps.

“Our key was, we had some practices,” Maston said. “We actually watched a lot of film on these guys to see what their tendencies and all that were. We tried to use it against them, and obviously it seemed like it worked.”

Of the opening in PV’s defense, Maston said, “That’s what we were looking at in the film — the spots that they leave open a lot. It’s not always how hard you hit it; it’s finding that open spot on the court.”

Early in the first game, PV took leads of 4-2, 6-4 and 9-7 before the Tigers went into attack mode. Northwestern went on a nine-point spree to go ahead 16-10. Another seven-point rally made the score 24-11.

NW looked dominant at the start of game two, taking an 11-4 lead. PV did rally, though, and came back to knot the score at 16. Four straight points by NW, including a kill by Stringer, put the Tigers ahead 20-16.

Game three also looked like it would belong to the Tigers, as they bounded in front 13-5. Orsulak got into her groove and brought the Panthers back, tying the score at 15. The rest of the game belonged to PV, though, with junior JaeLynn Browdy doing some damage with her hard hitting.

The final game began with the two teams battling evenly. At one point the score was 10-10, but PV never led again with the Tigers clawing to a 19-13 lead.