It took a while for Pottsville senior outside hitter Madison Sterner to find her rhythm in Thursday's Schuylkill League interdivisional matchup against Panther Valley.
Once she did, the last crossover matchup between teams with unbeaten division records was settled.
Sterner accumulated 13 kills as Division I pacesetter Pottsville started quickly to complete a 25-12, 25-13, 25-22 victory over the visiting Panthers, whose status atop Division II concerned Sterner.
"We were both undefeated, so we came in nervous," she said.
That trepidation seemed to dissipate quickly as Pottsville (7-0, 6-0 D-I) rolled to a 15-4 lead in the opening game behind two long service runs.
Pottsville head coach Lauren Shandor said that took Panther Valley out of its game.
"Every time I think of Panther Valley, I think of hard servers," she said. "They always come in with hard, aggressive servers. They always have a good passing team. They're always a well-rounded playing team, so I know they're going to come in tough against us, whether it's home or away."
Instead, Pottsville's early success left Panther Valley head coach Nancy Filer wondering what might have happened if the early score had been closer.
"I'm happy with them. They aren't giving up, which is awesome," Filer said about the Panthers (6-1, 5-1 D-II). "They play hard. Sometimes the ball doesn't fall your way."
Sterner made sure it wouldn't do that on 13 occasions.
She only had two kills in the opening game, but was the Tide's key weapon as teammate Caren Moyer closed the second game with a 10-point service run. Sterner gave Pottsville the serve with a kill off Hannah Corbacio's pass, then produced two
more kills, both off assists from Corbacio, as the Tide turned a 15-13 lead into a 25-13 triumph.
"The one big thing we try to tell Hannah and Kyra (Varano) when they're setting is whoever is hot, you push them, but you still have to mix it around to the other hitters, too," Shandor said. "Obviously, you don't want to keep going to the same person and have blockers camp on them, and then you don't have anyone else to go to."
The Tide also got eight kills from Mariah Curry, seven from Haley Drum and four from Karlena Bartashus, but Sterner's effectiveness from the left side kept Panther Valley off-balance.
"I was looking for the open spots to hit right down," Sterner said.
Early, the serves of both Bartashus and Drum were a bigger problem for the Panthers. The latter served back-to-back aces during the first game.
After Pottsville got its 15-4 lead, Panther Valley regrouped and pulled within eight points at 18-10, but Drum returned to the service line with a 21-12 lead.
Pottsville produced three straight points, including an ace to the far corner of Panther Valley's court and Curry's game-ending kill off one of Corbacio's 23 assists.
Panther Valley then claimed leads in each of the final two games.
In Game 2, the Panthers rode a kill and an ace by sophomore Jamie Mikovich to build a 7-4 edge.
Pottsville caught Panther Valley and tied the game twice before Bartashus served an ace for an 11-10 Tide edge.
Panther Valley never caught up, but it took Moyer's service run to pull the Tide away to the easy win.
Panther Valley held a lead longer in the third game. Breaking away from a 5-5 deadlock, the Panthers grabbed a 13-8 edge as Kelsey Van Horn, who also had four kills in the match, served an ace.
However, Pottsville again caught the Panthers at 14 and took the lead to stay on an errant spike. Trailing 24-20, Panther Valley turned back two game points before a serve out of bounds gave Pottsville the clinching point.
"It is a loss in the books, but I think they did a lot of positive things," Filer said.
Meanwhile, Pottsville, whose JV took a 2-1 victory, keeps the same game plan.
"We just have to keep working and get stronger," Shandor said.