NTL VOLLEYBALL: NORTH PENN-LIBERTY TO HOST HORNETS FOR POTENTIAL MILESTONE MATCH (2024-09-10)
Northern Tier West Sports ReportLIBERTY, PA — Tuesday’s volleyball match-up between North Penn-Liberty and Wellsboro has more ramifications on the line than just the lead in the Large School division, as the Lady Mounties look to extend an amazing winning streak against the last NTL team to beat them in a regular season game .. the Lady Hornets.
Wellsboro topped NP-Liberty three sets to one (25-22, 25-21, 25-27 and 25-22) on October 20th, 2016 in Liberty, collecting 45 kills on the night .. 15 each by seniors Kirsten and Morgan Florio .. despite a 13-kill performance from NPL senior Lauren Smith and 11 kills from sophomore Brooke Harvey.
Four nights later, the Mounties beat Troy, then topped CV a night after that in their regular-season finale. NPL went on to beat Troy in the first round of Districts and won the title against Towanda .. beginning a string of five straight Class 2A championships .. but it would be those two late-season league wins that would begin an almost-as-impressive run through the NTL that as of now stands at an unfathomable 99 straight matches.
The streak includes six District IV titles and, without losing a regular season NTL match, seven straight NTL Large School championships.
Liberty’s dominance was put on display every time they took the court, as among the 99 wins there were 80 sweeps by the Mounties and an amazing 297 sets won to just 18 sets lost since the end of 2016.
In 2017, NPL won 15 regular season league matches, dropping just a set each to Wellsboro and Wyalusing the whole year. Along with their NTL title, they won Districts and were led by freshman Charisma Grega (266 kills, 59 aces), sophomore JoAnne McNamara (361 assists) and juniors Elliana Fry (60 blocks) and Savannah Doney (219 digs).
2018 saw the Lady Mounties drop just a lone set .. to Wellsboro .. throughout their NTL schedule as they again won both league and Class 2A titles. McNamara (341 assists, 53 aces), Fry (51 blocks), Grega (225 digs) and senior Brooke Harvey (227 kills) led NPL to 14 league wins.
The Mounties swept their way through the 2019 NTL regular season, winning 14 matches without losing a single set. McNamara (477 assists) was joined by senior classmates Maddison Minyo (338 kills) and Grace Tice (129 blocks), as well as junior Ali Koval (468 digs, 69 aces) in leading NPL to another league title and D4 2A championship.
In a condensed 2020 season, seniors Grega (147 kills), Koval (32 aces) and Julia Nawri (331 assists) led the Mounties to their 4th straight league title and 5th straight District championship.
2021 saw the Mounties do something that hadn’t yet occurred during the streak .. they dropped two sets in a match against Small School and Class A champ Canton. The Mounties had been so dominant during the streak, falling in the District finals to Wyalusing was seen as a huge upset. “New” faces dotted the Mounties’ lineup in ’21, as juniors Darby Stetter (206 kills, 267 digs) and Aubrey Pequignot (297 assists) were joined by sophomore Saige Lehman (54 aces) and first-year starting senior Emerald Walker (55 blocks) as statistical leaders.
In 2022, the Mounties lost just four sets during their league schedule .. two in a win over Troy and one each to Canton and Wellsboro, as they redeemed themselves by winning back the Class 2A title they’d given up the year prior. Stetter (304 kills, 303 digs) and Pequignot (505 assists, 56 aces) shined in their senior seasons and Lehman classmate Payton Chapel led the team in blocks with 35.
The Mounties cruised through the ’23 season, winning 13 league matches and dropping just a single set, to Williamson, before once again getting “upset” in the District finals .. this time by top-seeded Northeast Bradford.
Lehman (183 kills), classmate Megan Spohn (460 assists, 66 aces) and junior Rylie Smith (237 digs) led NPL to their seventh straight NTL championship, with much help from seniors Ella Swingle (151 kills) and McKenna Lightner (35 aces, 121 digs) and then-sophomore Haley Litzelman (69 kills, 13 blocks).
Now a senior and a junior, Smith and Litzelman are leading the Mounties in 2024 as the only returning starters from last season. They’ve won their three league matches to reach 99 wins in the streak. Along with seniors Maddy Youmans, Addison Weightman, Kaylee Graham and Phoebe Ruth and junior Kam Lightner, the Mounties also feature a trio of sophomores in Claire Dominick, Elaina Shaw and Kendall Graham .. who were in 2nd grade when the streak began.
Also new to the ’24 Mounties is former assistant and first-year head coach Bill Grega, who has seen first-hand why North Penn-Liberty has been able to build the dynasty they have become.
“It's truly a testament to former Coaches Jenn Nawri and Mitch Stetter,” says Grega, “and to the dedicated, talented players that they both had along the way. Volleyball is an amazing sport and the success that North Penn-Liberty has had over the course of the last 10 years is because of the complete obsession .. the ‘buy in’ that all of the players have had over that time.”
“These girls get bitten by the volleyball bug and they just can't get enough,” Grega continues, “A good number of NPL players have played year-round volleyball .. from scholastic in the fall, to travel volleyball in the winter and then grass doubles and quads in the summer. I'm very proud of what North Penn-Liberty's volleyball team has accomplished.”
Grega and his current Mounties will go for their 100th straight regular season league win Tuesday night when they welcome Wellsboro to Liberty, while also looking to grab control of their 8th straight NTL large school title.
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