The Tri-Valley girls basketball team has enjoyed quite a lot of success over the last three seasons, advancing far into the state tournament in all three occasions.

The Lady 'Dawgs have come up a bit short of their overall goal, which of course is to win a state championship. However, this season it looks like head coach Bob Felty Jr. has worked out what little kinks there were to begin with. The Lady 'Dawgs showed last night against a good Tamaqua team that the only thing on their mind is getting to Hershey as they trounced the Raiders 72-29 for a non-league victory.As soon as the ball was tipped it was evident that both teams were going to be playing at a blistering pace. Usually, that style of play suits the Lady Raiders, but unfortunately for Tamaqua they just couldn't handle the speed of the Tri-Valley full-court pressure.The first quarter showcased that as the Tamaqua guards struggled to get the ball past the court mark. The Lady Raiders turnovers led to multiple fast break opportunities, usually led by point guard Julie Weber. Weber is experienced and she is fast and torched the Raiders in the first half, coming up with six steals and 16 points. When the smoke cleared after the first Tri-Valley held a 31-6 first quarter lead."What we've tried to do this season is use our athleticism to extend our defensive pressure to the full-court," said Felty Jr. "So far so good, but we still have a lot of work to do in order to get where we want to be. We really did do a good job tonight though. They have some good guards and our girls did really well in applying pressure, causing turnovers, and then converting on the offensive end."Tamaqua had their problems with the Tri-Valley pressure throughout the ball game, but they also had no answer for Lady 'Dawgs center Tara Nahodil. The 6-4 monster presence in the paint dominated whenever she received the rock, scoring 22 points on 11-for-11 shooting from the field, while adding 13 rebounds. Nahodil has certainly refined her skills around the bucket and looks primed to have a fantastic senior season."Tamaqua is a good basketball team and we respect them immensely," said Felty Jr. "We just had one of those games where everyone of our players played great together on one night. Everything went well for us out there tonight."The loss for Tamaqua is obviously a tough one, but the Raiders still have a some good things on the horizon."The only thing I can say is that's a great basketball team," said Berezwick. "It's hard not to catch yourself watching how well they play together. If they can maintain this type of play they're headed for a state title. If there's a team out there that can beat them, I know Steelton is still out there, but they're most definitely firing on all cylinders."Maria Streisel was the lone Lady Raider in double figures, scoring 11 points.Along with Nahodil and Weber, Taylor Troutman scored 11 points for Tr-Valley.TRI VALLEYWeber 6-6-6-18, Deibert 1-0-0-2, Spickler 4-0-0-8, Dietrich 1-0-0-2, Smeltz 1-0-0-2, Wiscount 0-0-0-0, Troutman 5-1-2-11, Doyle 2-0-0-4, Stutzman 1-0-2-3, Nahodil, 11-0-0-22. TOTALS: 32-7-10-72TAMAQUAHartung 0-0-0-0, Demetriades 2-0-0-4, Slivka 0-0-0-0, Kabilko 1-0-0-2, M. Streisel 4-3-6-11, C. Streisel 3-0-0-6, V. Solt 0-0-0-0, Jones 0-0-0-0, Wittig 0-0-0-0, Pratka 0-0-0-0, A. Solt 3-0-0-6. TOTALS: 13-3-6-29Tri-Valley 31 21 14 6 - 72Tamaqua 6 4 13 6 - 29Three-Pointers: TV Stutzman-1