Abington Heights went to Blue Ridge April 25 and battled through a four-set match to emerge as the last unbeaten boys volleyball team in the Lackawanna League.
By the time the week ended and Tunkhannock lost, the Comets were the last District 2 team standing with a perfect record.
The Comets entered May with an 8-0 record to lead Blue Ridge (8-1) in the league and to build a large ratings race in pursuit of the top seed in District 2 Class 3A.
Blue Ridge was the only team to win a game off Abington Heights. The Comets posted their other seven victories by 3-0 sweeps.
The Comets have built a balanced attack with six players providing at least 20 kills, led by senior outside hitter Nate Steenback with 64.
Nico Bossi has 57 kills and leads the team with 21 aces and 11 blocks.
Quentin Birch has 44 kills.
Colin Jenkins has 30 kills and leads the team with 53 digs.
Jack Burke and Jamison Bessoir have chipped in with 23 and 20 kills.
Setter James Brust has the bulk of the teams assists and is second in aces with 20.
Bossi and Birch each came up with 13 kills in the win over Blue Ridge while Steenback added nine.
“Going in, we knew they had big swings,” Steenback said. “We knew where we could win was serving and passing.”
The Comets dropped their first set of the season during the second set, but came back strong to close out the 25-11, 20-25, 25-22, 25-19 victory.
“What we focused on was working our offense better,” Steenback said. “We tried to speed up the tempo in the middle.”
Bessoir led the defense with six blocks while Bossi added five.
Birch provided five service aces. He was serving when Abington Heights opened the match with the first seven points on the way to a 21-7 lead.
Blue Ridge followed up its second-set win by scoring six of the first eight points in the third set, but Abington Heights went on an 11-4 run and took control from there.
