Lady Raiders ride momentum into the postseason

BY JOBY FAWCETT
Times-Shamrock Writer

Blue Ridge has come a long way since a loss on opening night.

And Katherine Kempa helped ignited the recovery.

After starting the season with a tough, 3-1 loss to Abington Heights, the Lady Raiders put together a pair of long winning streaks to qualify as the No. 1 seed for the District 2 Class A volleyball playoffs.
Blue Ridge hosted Monday’s semifinal doubleheader as a reward.

Susquehanna (8-10) played Lackawanna Trail (7-11) at 5 p.m. and the Lady Raiders (13-5) faced MMI Prep (4-13) from the Wyoming Valley Conference, 30 minutes after the first match concluded.

“That was our big goal, to get that home court,” Kempa said. “We are excited to be playing at our school.
“We have to stick together and just play our hearts out, and keep playing as a team.”

This season, Kempa has been the catalyst for the Lady Raiders.

As a junior, she was a Lackawanna League first-team all-star as a setter, and carried that leadership quality to this season.

Seven times she had at least 20 assists in a match with her season-high of 23 coming in a win over Susquehanna.

Her ability to loft sets in good positions for the hitters has keyed the Blue Ridge attack.

Megan Houlihan has been a force on the front line, and the Lady Raiders are getting contributions from everybody, including Hayleigh Fekette, Kimberly Klim and Kristine Carlsen and Chloe Randall, who were both second-team all-stars last season, and Kandace Smith, who is the libero.

“We were pretty excited right from the beginning of the season,” Kempa said. “We had our lineup pretty much back from last year.

“We just really molded well as a team.”

But, the season started with that loss to Abington Heights where it was not only 3-1, but the last two sets were 25-9 and 25-9.

It didn’t take long for the experienced Lady Raiders to bounce back. They reeled off six straight wins before back-to-back losses to division champion Dunmore and Western Wayne.

Then came the rematch with Abington Heights. And this time, Blue Ridge won with Kempa providing 14 assists, Klim and Houlihan combining for 15 kills and Carlsen providing the defense with 22 digs.

That kick-started a seven-match win streak that included a second win over Lackawanna Trail that secured the No. 1 seed for the playoffs.

“We came in and were really positive about the season,” Kempa said. “We were always keeping our heads up and that winning streak really gave us a boost.

“We were really communicating well on the court and we want to continue that in the postseason.”

In Monday night’s semifinal matches held at Blue Ridge, Susquehanna fell to Lackawanna Trail, 3-2; while Blue Ridge picked up a 3-0 win over MMI Prep.

The Lady Raiders will face Trail Wednesday in the Class A finals, at North Pocono High School at 5 p.m.

At Blue Ridge, Megan Houlihan had 10 kills, nine digs and seven points and Kimberly Klim had five digs and 11 points to lead the top-seeded Lady Raiders to a semifinal win.

Hayleigh Fekette had seven kills and 10 digs for the winners and Katherine Kempa had 16 assists, five digs and seven points.