BETHLEHEM, Pa - Once Northampton Head Coach Adrian Yaguez saw the list of teams that committed to his Tournament of Champions, he knew his team would have its hands full.  The 2015 Labor Day weekend Tournament at Northampton features his 3-time defending Region XIX Champions, Monroe Community College (Rochester, NY), a national tournament participant last year and the 9th ranked team in the country, Fashion Institute of Technology (New York, NY), ranked 10th in the latest poll and a 2014 natioanl tournament participant, Sandhills Community College (Pinehurst, NC), ranked 3rd in Distict H and Ocean County College (Toms River, NJ), ranked 4th in District H.  

Yaguez turned out to be a prophet on Saturday as Northampton went 2-2 and earned the #4 seed for the playoff round on Sunday.  The 2 losses were the first losses at home since October 20th, 2011.  "It's no so much the losses, as it is how we played," commented Yaguez, the 3-time Region XIX Coach of the Year, "we played some quality teams today, but I really thought we shot ourselves in the foot a number of times ... you can't give quality opponents like this second and third chances, and we did all day."

The Spartans opened the day with a 2-0 (25-21, 25-16) sweep of Fashion Institute, as Rachael Caywood (Bath, PA/Nazareth ) had 5 kills and 5 digs and Kalli Walling (Saylorsburg, PA/Pleasant Valley) added 7 digs for the Spartans. The Spartans then downed Ocean County 25-20, 25-16 as Morgan Barnes (Macungie, PA/Salem Christian ) had 8 kills and Bridget Lozier (Saylorsburg, PA/Pleasant Valley ) added 6 kills to propel the offense behind Anona Bauman (Northampton, PA/Northampton )'s 16 assists.

The third match of the day for Northampton pitted the undefeated Spartans vs. undefeated Monroe Community College, and the Tribunes earned a 2-0 victory, downing the Spartans 25-22, 25-19.  Jax Babezki (Warrington, PA/Central Bucks South ) had 4 kills and Lori Deutsch (Bath, PA/Northampton ) added 5 digs to pace Northampton.  Match four saw the Spartans and Sandhills go to three sets, before the Flyers pulled away with a 15-9 victory in the third set to earn the victory.  Bridget Lozier (Saylorsburg, PA/Pleasant Valley ) had a team-high 11 kills and Anona Bauman (Northampton, PA/Northampton ) recorded 25 assists, but it wasn't enough for Northampton.

At the conclusion of pool play on Saturday evening, the team records were as follows:
Monroe (4-0)
Sandhills (2-2)
Ocean (2-2)
Northampton (2-2)
Fashion (0-4)

Northampton earned the #4 seed and will face 5th seeded Fashion on Sunday morning at 11am for the right to move on to the semi-finals at 12:30pm vs. Monroe.  Sandhills and Ocean will face-off in the other semi-final.  The Championship match is slated for 2:00pm at the Arthur L. Scott Spartan Center.