CEDAR RAPIDS, IA - The Northampton women's volleyball team collided with the top-seeded and two-time defending national champion Dallas College-Eastfield Harvester Bees in the national quarterfinals late Thursday night and fell in three sets (9-25, 15-25, 9-25) to wrap up their first day of competition at the NJCAA National Tournament.

The 8th seeded Spartans, coming of a hard fought win over Finger Lakes Community College to advance to the winner's bracket, found themselves with the tough task of facing a seasoned Dallas College-Eastfield team that cruised through their first match of the day over Holyoke Community College, 3-0.

Freshman Outside Hitter Kyra Miller (Whitehall, PA/Whitehall) led the Spartans with 7 kills and Middle Hitter Grace Coppola (Allentown, PA/Central Catholic) added 4 kills. Lexi Womack (Saylorsburg, PA/Pleasant Valley) and Zoe Velez (Landville, PA/Warwick) each added 3 kills apiece and Setter Samantha Nagy (Easton, PA/Easton) recorded 18 assists. Libero Gianna Sciarra (Bethlehem, PA/Liberty) collected 10 digs in the loss.

"Extremely proud of our team," stated Spartans Head Coach Rachael Aquila, "We came out and played hard tonight and that's all we can ask. They are the defending champions for a reason and I was proud of how we competed and how we played all day. Time to get some rest and get ready to keep going tomorrow."

The Spartans fall to 29-2 overall, while Dallas College-Eastfield improves to 29-1.

The 8th seeded Spartans will be back on the floor tomorrow to take on the #5 seed Flyers from Sandhills Community College at 3:30pm (EST) at the Alliant Energy Powerhouse Arena .