Nazareth Area is 1-9 against Bethlehem Catholic since September of 2021 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Wednesday. The Blue Eagles will be playing in front of their home fans against the Hawks at 5:30 p.m. Both come into the matchup bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
On Monday, Nazareth Area sure made it a nail-biter, but they managed to escape with a 3-2 win over Northampton. The Blue Eagles haven't had any issues with the Konkrete Kids recently, as the game was their fourth consecutive victory against them.
If you add up the scores from across all five sets (102-97) Nazareth Area actually scored fewer points, but in the end it didn't matter. Once all was said and done, the final score wound up at 25-22, 26-24, 10-25, 21-25, 15-6.
Mallory Garland and Keeley Kershner were among the main playmakers for Nazareth Area as the former had eight digs and four aces and the latter had ten kills, eight digs, and three aces. That's the most aces Garland has posted since back in October of 2024.
They weren't the only good servers: Nazareth Area was lethal from the service line and finished the match with 13 aces. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now served at least five aces in four consecutive contests.
Meanwhile, Bethlehem Catholic beat Liberty 3-1 on Monday.
Bethlehem Catholic was especially dominant in the fourth set. The final score came out to 25-16, 25-18, 25-27, 25-10.
The win got Nazareth Area back to even at 8-8-1. As for Bethlehem Catholic, their victory bumped their record up to 15-0.
Nazareth Area might still be hurting after the 3-0 defeat they got from Bethlehem Catholic when the teams last played back in September. Will the Blue Eagles have more luck at home instead of on the road? Check back here after the action for a full breakdown and analysis of the contest.
