BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Dreams of an unbeaten season for the NCC women's  volleyball team were dashed on Monday night as Montgomery County Community College handed the Spartans their first loss, 3-1 (20-25, 25-22, 25-19, 25-21) in a tri-match at the Spartan Center.

The Spartans, who held a one game lead in the conference standings over Montgomery, jumped out to a 1-0 lead with a 25-20 victory in game one, but the Mustangs roared back to win three straight sets and earn a share of the Region XIX regular season championship.

"It is obviously disappointing," remarked Head Coach Adrian Yaguez, "while it was never our goal to go undefeated, when you get that close you realize how special it could be.  The toughest part is that I don't think we played our best ... Montgomery is very good, but we really hurt ourselves tonight."

Kelly Yagerhofer recorded 10 kills and 20 digs, Meghan Granite had 8 kills and Halie Cintron finished with 5 kills and 25 assists to lead NCC.

The Spartans returned to the court to face Division II County College of Morris and defeated the Titans, 2-0, in a best of three matchup.

NCC took game one 25-21 and then completed the sweep with a 25-15 victory to improve to 15-1 overall on the season.

Sabrina Gonzalez had 10 digs, Courtney Rice 14 digs and Emily Canfield had 3 kills to lead NCC.

"I wasn't sure how we would respond," quipped Yaguez, "I knew the girls would be down after losing to Montgomery, but I was proud of how they bounced back and played with a purpose vs. Morris."

Montgomery defeated Morris, 2-0 (25-18, 25-22) in the night's other matchup.

Northampton is now off until the Region XIX Tournament which will be held this weekend at the Spartan Center.  Northampton and Montgomery each finish 11-1 in league play and it will likely come down to a coin flip for the #1 seed.  Passaic and Bergen will round out the field, with complete seedings and tournament pairings coming out later this week.