EASTON - Melissa Waldron knew a little bit about the history of the Jim Thorpe girls' volleyball program even before taking the court against them Thursday night.

The Notre Dame of Green Pond coach stressed the fact that the Olympians exceeded her expectations of what they may bring forth in the opening round of the District 11 Class 2A playoffsThe locals made things interesting for the Colonial League champions on their first trip back to the postseason in over a decade, but the Crusaders refused to let the No. 8 seed stand in their way of getting their hands on yet another potential district title. The last district appearance by Thorpe was in 2006.The Crusaders, who own the top seed, battled through what the Olympians made a competitive, hard-fought three-game match to secure a 25-14, 25-20, 25-19 victory."Their record doesn't show the kind of team that they are and that happens when you're in a recovery season with a new coaching staff," Waldron said. "I'm glad they were competitive and I'm really proud of them. I'm really looking forward to seeing them in the future."Jim Thorpe kept Notre Dame on their toes in the beginning of each and every game, but just couldn't find the way to keep the momentum on their side.The Olympians started the opening game with a five-point lead, only to see the Crusaders steal the momentum back to force two ties and then take the lead for good.After taking a 2-1 lead in the second game, the locals held the lead until the Crusaders took a 14-13 lead. The Crusaders brushed off four more ties - the last being at 18-18 - then to move one step closer to victory.The Olympians controlled the majority of the final game up until the point the Crusaders tied it at 16-16. The Crusaders showed they may start off slow at times, but definitely know how to finish.Jim Thorpe coach Victoria Nichols knew what came back to bite them in the end, literally in each and every game, but also served as a lesson learned for what may lie in the future for the Olympians."We were up and then we lost the momentum," Nichols said. "It was silly mistakes, like balls dropping, but they made their mistakes and that gave us a lot to play off."Unfortunately, we just had way too many errors. And, I always tell the girls, 'Let them make mistakes. Not us.' It's just things we need to work on now towards other appearances."DROUGHT OVER ... It was the first time since 2003 that the Olympians qualified for the postseason. It was a short stay though, but the Olympians got a good taste of it and probably want nothing more than to get back again next season. It's a given, as Nichols stressed, "We played the No. 1 team in District 11 and coming from a losing record for more than the past 10 years I think we proved ourselves to get to this point. Now, we know what we have to do to get here next year."NUMBERS ... Kelsey Carroll paced the Olympians with 10 digs and nine assists, while Shigo added 10 digs and three kills. Alex McGinley (11 digs) and Jillian Peterson (five kills, two blocks) contributed in the true effort.