Volleyball and soccer have some similarities. They're both played with a ball and a net. In addition, teamwork is necessary for success both on the court and on the field.

For Lehighton High School senior Katie Higgins, there is one more similarity - she excels at both sports.Higgins, ranked No. 1 in her class academically, will graduate from high school in December and begin classes at the University of Georgia in January. She is a highly-touted soccer recruit who accepted a scholarship from Georgia over several other Division 1 programs.But when it comes to high school sports, Higgins never played soccer at Lehighton. Instead, she focused on her other love - volleyball.The All-Schuylkill League and two-time District 11 volleyball all-star passed up the opportunity to achieve superstar success if she played high school soccer.Playing volleyball has been a pleasant break from a full-year soccer commitment, a plan she advocates to all athletes who are thinking of specializing in one sport."There's a lot of jumping in volleyball, and I think that's helped me become pretty good at heading the ball in soccer," said Higgins. "And I think all the stamina I need to play a full game of soccer helps keep me moving quickly to the ball in volleyball."Higgins has starred for Lehighton volleyball coach T.J. O'Conner for the past four years."She almost never happened for us." said O'Conner. "We turned her down as a sixth grader for our middle school program because she didn't get her application in on time. Thankfully, her mother signed her up again for the following year."In volleyball, Higgins excels in each of her rotational positions on the floor. She recently scored her 620th career point (a combination of kills, service aces, and blocks). O'Conner believes she's on pace for a 300-kill season and 1,000 career points, which would put her at an elite level."Historically, Lehighton has not kept accurate volleyball scoring records," said O'Conner. "So informally speaking, I believe Katie will hold the school record."Higgins began playing soccer when she was four years old."My family is very sports-minded. My mom signed me up for basketball and track, too."Before she accepted the invitation to play at Georgia, Higgins played youth soccer for area travel clubs. She then made the U14 Girls National Team and attended camps in Carson, California, where her play opened the eyes of several scouts. Three years ago, she was selected by the PDA (Player Development Academy), an elite soccer program located near Rutgers University in New Jersey."My family and I often travel four hours round trip to PDA. I'm very grateful to them for the sacrifices they have made so I can continue to compete at the highest levels."O'Conner is also grateful that Higgins can play volleyball with very few conflicts with her soccer schedule."Her presence has been reliable and she's such a great teammate. Katie's been our captain for the last two seasons," he said. "I believe her athletic skill on the court is the result of her core strength, beginning with her legs which give her an outstanding vertical leap despite being average height."Higgins displayed her talents in a recent volleyball game against Pottsville. Down 20-9, O'Conner began to substitute players to get them more playing time."I left Katie in the game and she had 15 consecutive serves. The majority were aces and we came back to win the game, 25-20. It was an incredible performance,"Just like on the court, Higgins excels as a playmaker on the soccer field, often assisting the scores by her teammates."I play center-back, kind of like a safety in football, the last line of defense before the goalkeeper. I love to pass and set up scoring chances for my teammates."Despite her obvious individual talents in both sports, Higgins is the ultimate team player"For all her athletic achievements, Katie is incredibly modest," said O'Conner. "She really prefers to talk about her teammates instead of herself."Despite her modesty, she maintains the confidence in her abilities to follow her dream after finishing her schooling at Georgia."I'd like to play in the Women's Professional Soccer League someday," said the soon-to-be biochemistry and psychology major.For Higgins, modesty and ambition go together as well as volleyball and soccer.************IN THE NICK OF TIME ... Last Thursday, Pleasant Valley's Danielle DiMarco scored off a corner kick with one second left in regulation to give the Lady Bears soccer team a 2-1 Eastern Pennsylvania Conference victory over Stroudsburg. It is the second soccer game this season involving a Times News area team to be decided in the final seconds of either regulation or overtime. Earlier this year, the Weatherly boys soccer team scored with five seconds left in overtime to secure a 2-1 victory over Tri-Valley.************A STREAK FOR THE AGES SNAPPED ... The Northwestern girls cross country team suffered its first loss in a dual meet since 2010 last Tuesday when Southern Lehigh edged the Lady Tigers 27-28 in a Colonial League dual meet on Lehigh Parkway hosted by Salisbury. The Spartans took the third through sixth spots to end Northwestern's streak of 134 consecutive dual meet victories, despite the Tigers earning the top two finishes with junior Molly Tarvin's first-place time of 19:54 and sophomore Madeline Consuelos' second-place finish (19:59). The one-point heartbreaker is Northwestern's first loss since the Lady Tigers dropped a 26-29 decision to Notre Dame of Green Pond on Oct. 13, 2010, thus snapping a streak of five straight undefeated seasons.************TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE ... The Northwestern boys soccer team entered Friday's Colonial League contest with Southern Lehigh having shutout all seven of its previous opponents. The Tigers were poised for their eighth straight shutout, but Southern Lehigh's Andrew Malicki scored with 6:45 left in the game to snap a scoreless streak in which Northwestern outscored its opponents 38-0. The shutout streak spanned 633 minutes and 15 seconds, which means the Tigers played over 10 and a half hours of scoreless soccer to open their season. Currently, Northwestern is outscoring its foes 45-1 with nine shutouts in 10 games.************CLASH OF THE CHAMPIONS ... On Saturday, the Tamaqua girls cross country team repeated as champions of the Pine Grove Cardinal Clash for the third straight year. The Raiders took four of the top five spots, with Monika Shimko winning the girls race with a time of 19:59. Kailee Carroll placed third, Sarah Maue finished fourth, and Nicole Wasserleben came in fifth, to pace the Raiders. Tamaqua won the team title with 27 points. Host Pine Grove was second with 93 points. In last year's Cardinal Clash, Shimko was the runner-up to Jim Thorpe's Delana Nalesnik.************A TRIO OF HAT TRICKS ... There were just three hat tricks recorded by Times News area athletes over the past week, but Lehighton's Frank Bokan topped the list, as he scored five of his team's 10 goals as he led the Lehighton boys soccer team to a 10-3 victory over Tamaqua. The five goals in a game is the most by any Times News player this season, bettering the four goals scored by Northern Lehigh's Jill Olewine on Sept. 2. Jim Thorpe's Jackie Condly scored three goals in last Thursday's 6-0 girls soccer victory over North Schuylkill, while Tamaqua's Jamie Zuber knocked in three goals in a 7-2 girls soccer victory over Catasauqua on Saturday.************GOLFING GOODNESS ... The Schuylkill League will hold its annual golf championships next week with the Boys League Meet on Monday at Schuylkill Country Club and the Girls League Meet on Tuesday at Blue Mountain View Golf Course. The Team Championships will be held on Wednesday at Hidden Valley Golf Course and Marian will be competing for the Division 2 Championship. Entering play on Tuesday, Marian (11-1 overall, 9-0 league) sits atop of Division 2 and will face Pine Grove (7-2 league) for the division crown. In their two regular season meetings with the Cardinals this year, the Colts came away with a 345-400 victory on Aug. 22, and a 315-332 victory on Sept. 7. In the Division 1 Championship, Blue Mountain (10-0 league) will face off against Lourdes Regional (6-2 league).************EYE OF THE TIGER(S) ... The first two District 11 playoff berths have been clinched by Times News area teams and both teams reside in New Tripoli. The undefeated Northwestern boys soccer team (10-0) punched its ticket to the posteason with a a 1-0 victory over Freedom on Saturday, while the Northwestern girls soccer team (9-1) clinched its district berth on Saturday with a 4-0 victory over Liberty. The boys will compete in the Class AAA Tournament, while the Lady Tigers do battle in the Class AA bracket.************PICTURE PERFECT ... As Summer turns to Fall tomorrow, four Times News area teams are still unbeaten on the season. In volleyball, Marian (6-0) and Panther Valley (6-0) are both undefeated, while the above-mentioned Northwesten boys soccer team is sitting with a perfect 10-0 record with eight games to play. The Pleasant Valley girls soccer team (7-0-1) also has not been beaten this season, but they opened the year with a scoreless tie against Pocono Mountain East on Sept. 2.************Every Wednesday during the fall sports season, the Times News sports department will publish its weekly fall sports notebook reflecting back on the week that was, and highlighting both individual and team accomplishments, as well as interesting information that may have occurred in games, matches or meets. The notebook will cover cross country, field hockey, golf, soccer, tennis and volleyball, and will consist of storylines from the previous seven days. Today's notebook will reflect back on all the happenings from last Tuesday up through this past Monday. Times News sports writer Jason Boris will once again be handling the compilation of notes and is encouraging all local coaches and schools to email him with noteworthy information that can be used in this column. Emails can be sent to

jboris@tnonline.com. Please note that only results and information received by the Times News during the week will be used in this column.