BRYN MAWR, Pa. - The Northampton women's volleyball team suffered their first setback of the season on Monday evening, falling 3-1 (24-26, 20-25, 25-18, 15-25) at Harcum College.

The Division II Bears, playing before a raucous home crowd, were able to avenge a 3-1 loss to the Spartans in Bethlehem just a week ago by grabbing the momentum early and taking the first two sets to open the match. Northampton rallied to take the 3rd set and cut to the lead to 2-1 but that was as close as the Spartans would get on the night. The Bears took the fourth set to seal the win and hand the Spartans their first loss of the year.

Sophomore Outside Hitter Lexi Womack (Saylorsburg, PA/Pleasant Valley), who on Monday afternoon was named the EPAC Player of the Week for the third time this season, led the Spartans with 14 kills, 2 service aces and 23 digs in the loss. Freshman Middle Hitter Grace Coppola (Allentown, PA/Central Catholic) had 11 kills and 4 blocks while Sophomore Right Side Zoe Velez (Landville, PA/Warwick) added 11 kills and 4 digs. Sophomore Setter Samantha Nagy (Easton, PA/Easton) registered a season-high 46 assists and also added 12 digs. Freshman Libero Gianna Sciarra (Bethlehem, PA/Liberty) collected 29 digs and 3 service aces.

"Tough loss tonight," explained Spartans Head Coach Rachael Aquila, "We knew this would be a battle and we just fell short. We will learn from it and move on."

The Spartans, who climbed to #7 in the NJCAA national poll earlier in the day, fall to 18-1 overall with the loss and 7-1 in the EPAC. The Spartans are 9-0 in Region 19.

The Bears improve to 4-5 overall.

Northampton is back in action on Wednesday evening when they travel to Harrisburg, PA to take on HACC at the JW Evans PE Center at 6pm.