NORTHAMPTON — With an upset win over second seed and Schuylkill League champion Panther Valley in the quarterfinals, Northwestern Lehigh reached a spot in the postseason that the program has never ventured to in the past — the semifinal round of the District 11 tournament.

The reward was a trip to Catasauqua High School to face the 20-plus win Bethlehem Catholic Golden Hawks, the tournament’s No. 3 seed.

Northwestern got off to a strong start when the first serve of the match by Lacey Clymer was perfectly placed for a kill and a quick lead. Kayla Schaffer would serve another ace to give Northwestern a 4-2 lead only to see the Hawks tie the game at 4-4. Lexi Nagle picked up a kill to make it 5-4 in favor of the Tigers and return serve to her team.

Bella Lakatosh’s block gave Northwestern another point and Daisy Stringer delivered an ace to make it 7-4. Again, Bethlehem Catholic (22-1) tied the game at seven and then at eight, before Madeline Ahner took over serve and delivered two aces and strong play up front by Jocelyn Bell and Sophia Bedics led the Hawks to a 15-8 advantage.

From there, Northwestern (17-8) looked to fight its way back but was never able to catch up, and lost the opening set 25-17.

“We had actually played Becahi in a tournament at Northampton during the season and were competitive against them, so the girls came in knowing what to expect and knowing that we can be competitive against them, and I was happy to see how they came out tonight,” said coach Mike Maston.

The second set was all Becahi, with the exception of an ace from Leah Nagle and a strong service run from Alexa George. Bedics had five kills for the Hawks in the set. Northwestern did put on a run late in the set, but fell 25-15.

Needing to take the next three sets didn’t seem to faze Northwestern, as it came out in great shape for the third set and opened a 9-5 lead on strong serves by freshman Addie Hoffert.

Neither team grabbed momentum until Becahi broke serve to make it 19-19 and Ahner served up four straight winners to take it to 23-19. Northwestern then broke serve, but Bethlehem Catholic quickly reversed the trend and was able to pick up the match point on a serve by Piper Ruggiero to win 25-20.

“They found some spots on us that we weren’t covering very well, and they tipped on us very well; obviously, it must have been something that they had seen on film. And then we just couldn’t place it well,” said Maston. “Becahi went undefeated in the regular season, so we were definitely an underdog coming in and I think we played them well.

“There were times when we could have been stronger, but the outcome is the outcome, and we look forward to next season.”

Northwestern came into the season with a young team after having lost seven seniors from last year’s team that went to the district quarterfinal round.

This year’s roster had just four seniors – Alex Diehl, Lily Kinnon, Leah Nagle, and Danielle Riggan – and was able to work its way through the schedule with a pair of wins over a strong Notre Dame of Green Pond team and have the distinction of being the only team to have won a set against Southern Lehigh, a perennial powerhouse program in volleyball.

“Reaching the Colonial League finals this year and making it to the district semis are both milestones for our team, and the girls can be proud of reaching those levels and playing for a championship for the first time in the program’s history,” said Maston.

“We lost tonight, but we should be proud of what we did this year and we’re looking to get back to both of those spots next year, hopefully just with better outcomes, so that’s what we’ll work toward.”

TOUGH CLASS … The 3A classification is probably the toughest in girls volleyball with two league champions — Southern Lehigh and Panther Valley — and another team in Bethlehem Catholic whose only loss came in five sets in the EPC championship. Even with a 14-6 record in the regular season and a trip to the Colonial League finals, Northwestern was only the seventh seed in a crowded classification. Bethlehem Catholic now has to play Southern Lehigh for the District 11 championship with only the winning team advancing to states.

Bethlehem Cath. 3,

Northwestern 0

Northwestern 17 15 20

Bethlehem Catholic 25 25 25