Northwestern was playing in its first Colonial League girls volleyball final in program history.

Southern Lehigh has played in every league title game since it began holding them in 2013.

The more experienced Spartans looked the part in beating the Tigers Thursday 25-11, 25-13, 25-20 to take their ninth straight Colonial League crown.

“We played all right,” said Northwestern head coach Mike Maston. “We struggled a little bit the first couple sets. This was the first time our team has ever been at this level playing for a championship. The nerves were there in the first set. We settled in at the end of the second set. We gave them a really good match in the third set.”

The Spartans (18-0) jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the first game, with two service aces helping build the early lead. Southern Lehigh had four aces on its way to a 15-5 lead in the first set.

The second set started close before the defending champs ran off eight straight points, turning a 2-2 tie into a 10-2 lead. Senior Natalie Pristas had three kills during that run and led her team with 14 kills in the match.

The Spartans have several capable hitters, but Pristas leads the way.

“She’s our best hitter,” said Spartan head coach Don West. “She’s a senior. She’s been there before. She’s got over 600 kills in her career.”

The Tigers did their best to keep the second set close. After an ace from Lacey Clymer and a pair of kills from Kayla Schaffer, they cut the deficit to 14-9. But the Spartans, behind a kill and a block from Pristas, built the lead back up to 20-9 before closing out the set.

Southern Lehigh was at its best in the first two games, according to West, thanks to his back row players getting the offense started.

“The first two games are the best we played all year,” he said. “Defensively I have three awesome Liberos, but only one gets to wear the jersey. They were everywhere, passing and everything was really going well. We fell asleep a little bit in that third game, and we had to pull back from that 17-10 deficit.”

Responsible for the passing is Libero Mia Stanten, while playing along with her in the back row are Bella Germani and Cam Tyrell.

The third game saw the Tigers take an early lead as Clymer served an ace to get the set started. Kills from both Alexa George and Daisy Stringer gave Northwestern a 4-1 lead.

When the Spartans made a run to close the margin to 9-8, a kill from Northwestern’s Leah Nagle ended the run and started one for the Tigers, who built their third-set lead to 17-10 before the Spartans came back.

Southern Lehigh ran off nine straight points to take a 19-17 lead en route to the win.

Northwestern, which started its girls volleyball program in 2012, was making its first appearance in the league finals. Southern Lehigh has played in all 13 league title games, and has won 11 Colonial League titles.

“It’s’ a great group of girls,” said West. “They get along very well. Super smart kids that make it easy to coach.”

The Tigers are looking to get to that level.

“As I keep telling the girls, it’s a goal to get better every year,” said Maston. Last year we got eliminated in semifinals. This year we made it to finals. Next year maybe it’s gold.”

JUST ONCE...The Spartans came one set short of winning all of their matches by 3-0 scores. The only match in which they dropped a set was their Aug. 28 meeting against Northwestern, which they won 3-1.

BRUTAL BRACKET...Both teams will move on to the District 11 playoffs in the 3A Classification, which includes some of the top teams in three different leagues as Bethlehem Catholic was the top seed in the EPC tournament, and Panther Valley was among the top two teams in the Schuylkill League regular season. That bracket will feature nine teams with 11 or more wins, and seven teams with 14 or more.

TIGERS’ PATH ... Northwestern will be the No. 7 seed and face No. 10 North Schuylkill in a pigtail game next week. The winner will get the No. 2 seed, which will be either Panther Valley or Becahi, which suffered its first loss of the season in the EPC final, 3-2 to Emmaus. That result gives Southern Lehigh the top seed in the district tournament.

Southern Lehigh 3, Northwestern 0

Northwestern 11 13 20

Southern Lehigh 25 25 25

Stat Leaders: Northwestern - Daisy Stringer 5 kills; Leah Nagle 4 kills, 13 digs; Kayla Schaffer 12 assists, 8 digs, 3 aces; Lacey Clymer 8 digs; Alexa George 20 digs; Southern Lehigh - Natalie Pristas 14 kills; Sarah Jones 7 kills; Mia Stanton 14 digs; Bella Germani 17 digs; Eliana Marques 23 assists, 4 aces.