CEDAR RAPIDS, IA - The 8th seeded Northampton Women's Volleyball team came up short on the second day of competition at the 2025 NJCAA Division III National Tournament on Friday afternoon, falling to #5 seed Sandhills Community College in straight sets (13-25, 29-31, 10-25) at the Alliant Energy Powerhouse Arena.

The Spartans and Flyers both went 1-1 on the opening day of national tournament action on Thursday and found themselves locked into a 5th/7th bracket match up for Friday afternoon. The teams are no strangers to each other on the volleyball floor, having met 5 times previously since 2013 going into today with the Flyers now holding a 3-2 edge in that span. Sandhills came out on top in the last head to head meeting as well, a 3-1 triumph over the Spartans at the 2022 NJCAA Division III National Tournament.

The Spartans fell behind early and were unable to get any momentum and dropped the first set, 25-13. The second set was a battle from start to finish with both teams holding match point multiple times before the Flyers prevailed, 31-29. The Spartans were unable to get things moving in the third set and fell 25-10 to give the Flyers the sweep.

"Not what we had hoped for today," commented Spartans Head Coach Rachael Aquila, "We started a little slow and that hurt us. We played hard and the second set today really could have changed the momentum but it just didn't work out that way. Sandhills is a good team and very well coached and we just fell a little short. We showed our fight and that is all we can do. We will be ready to get back on the floor tomorrow."

Freshman Middle Hitter Grace Coppola (Allentown, PA/Central Catholic) continued her outstanding play and led the Spartans with 7 kills, 1 block and 3 digs in the tough loss. Lexi Womack (Saylorsburg, PA/Pleasant Valley), Kyra Miller (Whitehall, PA/Whitehall) and Sophia Tyma (Bethlehem, PA/Lehigh Valley Academy) each had 5 kills apiece with Womack also collecting 8 digs. Setter Samantha Nagy (Easton, PA/Easton) collected 17 assists with Defensive Specialist Emily Marcial (Allentown, PA/Executive Charter) recording 11 digs and 2 service aces.

Northampton slips to 29-3 overall with the loss and Sandhills improves to 35-4.

The 8th seeded Spartans will be on the floor on Saturday in the 7th place match up at 1pm (EST) against 3rd seeded Butler County (Pa.) back at the Alliant Energy Powerhouse Arena.