To the surprise of Tamaqua head coach Marie Schock, the Blue Raiders’ season looks like it will continue into the District 11 Class 3A playoffs.

In need of winning their final three matches to put themselves in a position to reach the postseason, the volleyball squad ran the table and finished the job Thursday against North Schuylkill.

After dropping the opening set, Tamaqua took the following three to earn a 3-1 victory.

“They had a tough beginning (of the season), and they wanted it really bad, so they finished strong,” coach Schock said. “It was absolutely amazing because they’ve been struggling with communicating and sticking together as a team. This week, they really pulled it out and did a great job.”

Reaching this point was no easy task for the Raiders, as their first moment of adversity came in the opening set. With a 21-14 Tamaqua lead, the visiting Spartans rallied with an 11-0 run to steal the set and put the Raiders into an early deficit.

North Schuylkill had previously defeated the Raiders 3-2 earlier in the season, but the Spartans were playing under different circumstances on Thursday.

Three members of the team, Autumn and Taylor Houser and Parker Drum, were injured in a car crash on Sunday, forcing the remaining members to play with heavy hearts for the remainder of their season. North Schuylkill showed how much heart they had, and even impressed opposing coach Schock.

“They are absolutely amazing,” she said. “The tragedy is absolutely heartbreaking for them. The fact that they were able to come and play as well as they did, I was very ecstatic to see them do so well because they’re a great hustling team.”

With both teams playing for important reasons, the entire match played out in such a fashion where no lead was safe.

The second set was just as unpredictable.

A 10-1 Raider run was followed by an 11-2 Spartan burst. Tamaqua ran off four more points, but the Spartans answered with a 5-0 run to take a 23-21 lead.

Just when the visitors appeared to be in control, the Raiders stole the set with a 5-1 stretch to tie the match.

Game three was even more of a surprise.

North Schuylkill jumped out to a 20-10 advantage, and appeared to be in cruise control. However, once Tamaqua got on a run, the Spartans were unable to stop the bleeding, allowing the home team to catch fire with a 16-4 stretch to win the set for the 2-1 match lead.

“Volleyball is a game of errors really, and I think with us, it was a lot of self-inflicted wounds,” said North Schuylkill head coach Tyler Mutchler. “Communication errors, sometimes we don’t call it. It goes in between two of them and we get there late. Some serving error things that we have complete control over, being out of position defensively, hitting errors, just stuff like that.”

The fourth set was about as balanced as one could be with the two teams trading points back and forth up to a 15-14 Spartan lead.

That’s when the extensive run began, and it came from the Raiders.

Senior Madison Schock led the charge with four points as part of a 10-3 run to gain a 24-18 margin, one point short of victory.

The Spartans made Tamaqua earn that final point by storming back with seven straight points. But the never-say-die Raiders earned the next three points to win the match.

“We really did earn it,” Maddison Schock said. “Our practices the last two weeks have been intense, and we had to do a lot of team building because it was a rough season. We are all our own characters, and to come together was hard, so we had to all talk all the time outside of practice so we were on the same page.”

FINAL STATS ... Schock led Tamaqua with 20 digs and 12 assists to go with her five kills and five aces. Naomi Knitter had a team-high seven kills, while Millie Black had a solid outing with five kills, five assists, and 16 digs.

SENIOR NIGHT TOO ... Prior to the match, the Raiders honored Schock and Payton Selby, the only two senior members of the volleyball team this season.

BEYOND SPORTS ... Tamaqua showed its support for the three Spartan players injured in Sunday’s accident. The varsity team’s 50/50 fundraiser went toward those families, along with donations from the volleyball boosters and attending fans. “Going into this game, obviously everyone felt bad for them,” said Black. “We got everyone gifts. We did fundraisers for the girls. It meant a lot to us that we got to play this game and give them all of our money that we got from all the fundraisers we did.” Mutchler added, “It’s been overwhelming. It’s just awesome to see people unite. Unfortunately, it takes sometimes a tragedy to do it, but just to see their overwhelming support and just knowing that even just writing a card or monetary donation and just saying that they’re praying and their thoughts go out to us (from) schools all around the district and outside the district, it means a lot, and I know it means a lot to the family.”

Tamaqua 3, North Schuylkill 1

North Schuylkill 25 24 23 25

Tamaqua 21 26 25 27

Statistics: North Schuylkill - Aubrey Krevinas 11 kills, 2 aces, 9 digs, 4 blocks; Scarlett Cuttic 9 aces, 4 digs; Lexi Samelko 15 digs, 3 kills, 2 aces, 3 assists; Abby Reismiller 10 digs, 10 assists, 2 kills, 1 ace; Payton Buchanan 9 digs, 2 kills, 2 aces; Hayden Marlow 3 kills, 5 digs; Karaline Reilly 5 digs, 1 assist; Tamaqua - Madison Schock 5 kills, 5 aces, 12 assists, 20 digs; Millie Black 5 kills, 5 assists, 4 aces, 16 digs, 2 blocks; Naomi Knitter 7 kills, 4 aces, 7 digs; Mackenzie Famularo 4 kills, 2 aces, 1 dig; Hailey Kunkel 5 kills, 2 digs; Payton Selby 2 kills, 5 digs; Stephanie Chen 10 digs; Skylare McConnon 1 kill, 1 dig.

Records: North Schuylkill (5-13; 3-11); Tamaqua (6-16; 2-12).