The Whitehall Zephyr volleyball team celebrated senior night, twice, and swept Nazareth, 3-0, (25-15, 25-23, 25-17) on April 28 at Whitehall.

The match, which was scheduled for April 27, was postponed due to a dangling light fixture on the gym’s ceiling.

The Zephyrs decided to move forward with their senior night pregame activities with plans to play the match the following day.

“We had our game plan, and they executed the way we wanted them to, which was really nice to see,” said Whitehall coach George Cowitch. “We made a couple switches on our defensive end. This is the first game we’re trying it, and it worked out really well, so we’re happy with that. We’ve got to make some tweaks as we move on to the playoffs. We’re not gonna make many more. I think where we’re at is where we need to be.”

The Zephyrs handled the Blue Eagles with relative ease in the first set, and in the second, the teams traded points until Nazareth pulled ahead, 12-8.

Whitehall brought the set back to five more ties until Kole Moyer’s ace to steal the lead, 21-20.

“Out of the last four matches, this was our biggest obstacle. Nazareth’s been giving a lot of teams fits throughout the league...They took a lot of good teams deep, so we knew they were gonna swing hard and play good defense, and we just had to keep playing through it,” said Whitehall opposite hitter Cole Richards, who returned to play last week after recovering from an injury.

Set 3 belonged to Whitehall sparked by three straight points from middle blocker Cole Rozycki (9 kills, 2 blocks), who caught Nazareth asleep at 19-12 when the Blue Eagles thought the point was over only to be surprised by Rozycki’s point.

Rozycki’s block ended the set and the match.

Whitehall closed out its senior night with a video highlighting Richards, Elias Kamhia, Drew Sodl, Ratliff, and Christian Matlock.

“Ricardo, who does the video, did such a good job with that,” said Cowitch. “We really got these kids involved in the picture taking in athletics, and that’s a great partnership. They’re really good, and they care about it.”

Cowitch described his seniors as great, steady players.

“Cole with his leadership...He had a return-to-play expectation, so he really worked hard. Our trainers here did an awesome job to get him back and in good cardio shape, so he just needed some game play. He got that in the last week, and I thought he played really well. Elias wasn’t playing so good to start the season and now he comes alive. Drew is a constant and has done whatever we asked him to do in four years, finally getting to play libero and doing a great job at that. Ratliff is such a big part of what we do and that’s important. Matlock, being such a glue guy, comes here and works his butt off and gives us a good look at practice. That’s a team guy, and I’m proud of him for that.”

Whitehall is planning to take its momentum into its next match against Northampton, which will have been played on April 29.

“We’ve been through a lot together, and I’m just happy we were able to play together, and I’m able to be on the court with them and keep enjoying it,” Richards said.