If you were looking for lengthy, down-to-the-wire thrillers, neither Catasauqua nor Northampton High School was the place to be on Thursday night.
But if you wanted to see dominant performances by two of the strongest programs in Lehigh Valley girls volleyball, then you might have enjoyed the Colonial League and Eastern Pennsylvania Conference championship matches.
At Catty, Southern Lehigh made it 10 straight Colonial League championships, sweeping past Notre Dame-Green Pond 3-0 (25-21, 25-13 and 26-24).
About an hour later and 2½ miles away at Northampton High School’s Pete Schneider Gym, Parkland won its 12th league championship and first since 2023 with an impressive 3-0 win over Bethlehem Catholic (25-21, 25-22 and 26-24) in the EPC finals.
Both the Spartans and Trojans advance to their respective District 11 tournaments as high seeds.
As the No. 1 seed, Parkland will host Whitehall in a Class 6A quarterfinal at 6 p.m. Wednesday, while in 5A, No. 2 seed Southern Lehigh will face Pleasant Valley in a semifinal at 7 p.m. Nov. 2 at Lehighton. Schuylkill League champ Pottsville nabbed the top seed in 5A.
Both teams are ranked No. 2 in their respective classes by the Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association, but both looked like No. 1s in their league-championship performances.
Sparkling Spartans
Southern Lehigh girls volleyball poses for a team photo after winning its 10th straight Colonial League title Thursday night at Catasauqua High School. (Keith Groller)
Coach Don West said his team raised $15,080 at its Pink-Out fundraiser last week and has now raised $153,620 in 18 years for the SideOut Foundation for breast cancer research and for Project Purple, which battles pancreatic cancer.
Southern Lehigh (20-0) is a team that not only raises funds for worthy causes but raises the bar when it has to on the court.
In beating Notre Dame for the third time this season and for the second time by a 3-0 margin, the Spartans again got a well-rounded performance.
Eliana Marques had 33 assists, four kills, two digs and five aces. Amelia McCoy had 20 kills and a pair of aces. Cam Tyrell chipped in three aces, two assists and eight digs, and Sarah Jones had nine kills and four digs.
“This is very special because Notre Dame came out to play tonight,” West said. “They took us to five sets at Notre Dame [Sept. 8] and then we won in three at our place later in the season, but I think tonight is some of the better volleyball they have played. They played well in the second and third sets and were really fighting. They have so many young kids that are starting to get some playing time. And they’re really helping them. [Crusaders coach] Mike Zile is a good friend of mine and does a really good job with them.”
Southern Lehigh had to rally to get the third set, scoring the last five points after trailing 24-21 and looking like it might have to play a fourth set.
Southern Lehigh girls volleyball celebrates after receiving the Colonial League championship trophy after a 3-0 win over Notre Dame-Green Pond Thursday night at Catasauqua High School. (Keith Groller)
“We’re missing a couple of players, but I think we definitely wanted to push through,”: McCoy, a senior headed to Virginia Tech, said. “We expected a hard match. They took two sets from us once, but we definitely said we’re not doing that again. We’re not letting them take more sets from us. That gave us good motivation.”
“Throughout the whole match we did a good job of sticking together,” Marques said.
The Spartans lost to Bethlehem Catholic in last year’s 3A district final and will use that memory to fuel them as they go for their first 5A title after the PIAA expanded to six classifications this year.
“We will have to work hard in practice because their league is harder than our league and it’s going to take more work,” McCoy said. “It will be a challenge, but we have a lot of talent and good players and we’re going to be really solid.”
Trojans triumph
Parkland girls volleyball team poses for a photo after winning the EPC championship with a 3-0 win over Bethlehem Catholic Thursday night at Northampton. (Keith Groller)
Parkland was solid throughout in beating Bethlehem Catholic 3-0 for the second time this season.
The Trojans rallied to win the first set and then pulled away with the last three points to take the second set.
In the third set, Becahi, which lost in the league finals for the third straight year, took a 21-14 lead, but couldn’t finish it off.
Instead, Parkland came up with several big hits to get the Lady Hawks scrambling. The final point came off a smash at the net by Riley Schilling and it prompted a celebration that was a few years in the making. Only three seniors were on the team when the Trojans last won a league gold in 2023.
It was the program’s 12th league title and now the Trojans will go for their 15th district gold.
The Lady Hawks had the EPC’s co-MVPs in Jocelyn Bell and Piper Ruggiero, but Parkland has a lot of unsung heroes well-orchestrated by longtime coach Mike Krause.
“Becahi did a good job of serving and passing and they challenged us with that, but with our blocks we were in the right position,” Krause said. “[Sophomore setter] Alex [Serina] did a good job of seeing some things where she could start making connections.”
Gabby Nissen led a balanced attack with 12 kills while Riley Schilling and MJ Bahnji had 10 and nine, respectively. Serina had 29 assists and Chloe Coonradt and Zoey Leach had 18 digs apiece.
“It was nice to get back here in the EPC finals and it’s gratifying to see the improvement of the kids, like [senior] Adi Ochoa for instance,” Krause said. “She was serving 80% early in the year, and I said you have to get better and she worked her tail off to get better. She did not miss a serve in the semifinals or the finals and served the last point tonight. To play under the gun and do it on this stage was amazing. These girls enjoy being in this position and they enjoy being challenged. Becahi is a really good team and Jocelyn and Piper are outstanding. But for us, the consistency is coming up and so is their ability to respond to adversity.”
Krause said the district tournament will be another challenge.
Bethlehem Catholic, which beat Southern Lehigh for the district 3A title last year, will play at the 4A level this year and will host No. 8 seed Jim Thorpe on Tuesday night.
Parkland, which didn’t lose to an EPC team all season, will need to beat three more league members in 6A to get another district gold. The Trojans won’t stray from their approach.
“We came into this one knowing that [Becahi] was really going to fight and that we had to fight back,” Nissen, a junior, said. “We never gave up from the start to the end. We were adjusting to what they were doing and did a good job of finding the spots that were working.”
“We talked about keeping the energy and momentum going tonight,” Schilling, a junior, said. “We were playing for the person next to us and also playing for another day in the gym together. We all love each other so much and want to keep playing. This was the first time I’ve personally won a league title. It feels amazing to get it back at Parkland.”