Northmor’s volleyball season came to an end on Tuesday when they took on third-seeded Newark Catholic in a Division IV district semifinal volleyball match.
The Golden Knights struggled returning their opponents’ serves in falling by scores of 25-10, 25-9 and 25-16 to finish with a 12-12 mark.
“Serve receiving has been our struggle all year,” said head coach Kara Wright. “They had three or four servers whom I thought did a good job keeping us out of our offense.”
Those struggles started early, as the Green Wave wasted no time in jumping out to a commanding lead in the first game. Two points by Maddie Kauble and four from Kelly Keck staked them to a 9-2 lead. They would expand that advantage to a 21-6 margin before Northmor got a defensive score and three scoring serves from Julianne Kincaid to get within 11 points.
However, they wouldn’t be able to get any closer. Newark Catholic scored a point to regain possession and then finished off the set with three points from Kauble.
They would start strongly in the second, as well, as Brynn Peddicord opened the set with five straight serves for scores. Northmor would battle back, though, getting points from Macy Miracle, Kincaid and Lexi Wenger to close within a 7-6 margin. The game was still closely-contested after a Michaela Zeger point made the score 11-9 in favor of the Green Wave.
Unfortunately for Northmor, after NC got a defensive point, they would turn a close set into a big win. Emma Franks took the line for the Green Wave and served for 13 straight points to cap a 14-point run that ended the second set of the match.
In the third set, Northmor played better and prevented their opponents from going on extended runs, but struggled to score when they had the ball. Miracle scored on the first serve of the set, but the team didn’t get another point off their serving until they were in an 18-11 hole.
Emily Zeger tallied a point for the team, but the Green Wave responded with three from Nikki Langenbrunner. A defensive point and one served by Megan Adkins made the score 22-14, but the team wouldn’t be able to get any closer as their opponents closed out the match.
Wright noted she was proud of her team’s efforts this season, saying that after some key losses to graduation after last year’s team advanced to the regional semifinals, they had to work hard to compensate for that.
“We lost a lot and had to fill some spots for this year,” she said. “We had a lot of holes to fill and did our best to do so.”