Southern Lehigh tops Bethlehem Catholic in four sets

When you match up two schools that have won the District 11 Class 2A girls volleyball championship for the last five years, and in the last four years they have played each other in the final, and these same two schools have played five-set matches every time they've played over the last three years, you know it's going to be a great night of volleyball.

The only difference this time was that it only went to four sets, with Southern Lehigh, now a 3A school, beating Bethlehem Catholic, 25-20, 25-14, 20-25, 25-17.

"I love coming here," Solehi coach Don West Jr. said. "I think it lost some of its luster because we aren't going to see each other again. This is usually at the beginning of the year and then we play again at the end of the year. But when you have the players we have here — they're loaded top to bottom, we're loaded top to bottom — and the girls love playing each other, it's great."

The Spartans (2-0) won the first set, 25-20. It was closer than the score indicated as the Golden Hawks (3-1) never gave in.

Solehi won the second set as well, by a surprisingly easy 25-14 score. Melann Amory had four of her team-high 13 kills in the set, while Jillian Grammer added a pair.

Since these matches traditionally go to five sets, it was no surprise that Becahi won the third set, 25-20. Except for early in the set, the Hawks led the whole way. Lauren Hess registered six kills for the Hawks, while Morgan Keim added five, including the set winner.

"Lauren's a phenomenal passer," West added. "We wanted to keep the ball off of Lauren because I think she's a great player."

"It was really intense," Hess said. "Everyone was putting everything they had out on the court. Everyone gave 110 percent and we were really tired."

The Spartans ran off the first four points of the fourth set and looked as if they were off to the races. But nothing is ever set in stone with these two teams. The Hawks fought back and, fittingly, Hess tied the score at 14 with a kill. She wears number 14, and after the kill went to the service line where she had an ace for Becahi's first lead in the set.

A Solehi net violation gave Becahi a 16-13 lead, but Amory had a kill and Jenna Forrester had a pair of aces to start an eight-point run for the Spartans that put the game away.

"That was kind of demoralizing," Hess said. "They kind of got in our heads a lot. We're not a head-case team but we kind of get shaken up at times. They got us."

"I was just trying to stay calm and collect myself so that I didn't overshoot it and miss my serves," Forrester said of her run.

"First we were playing real well, but we kind of let up in the third set," Amory said. "After playing so close in the first and us winning by a lot in the second, they probably thought, 'Hey, what's going on?' and they came back with fire. We just weren't ready for it. We came back in the fourth, but it was all as a team. It was not just one person."

"We gave it all we had," Becahi coach Paul Abi-Daher said. "The girls did exactly what I wanted them to do. They played very hard. Southern Lehigh is a very good team. They have a solid defense and their defense beat us. They beat our offense, really. I'm very happy with how hard they played and we look forward to playing Central Catholic on Tuesday."