Bonner-Prendie won its first three league volleyball matches, before running into Lansdale Catholic and its intimidating middle.  The Crusaders knocked the Pandas from the ranks of the league unbeatens in straight sets Tuesday night.

LC {3-2 overall, 2-1 league} jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the first set on the way to a 25-19 win.  The second set featured several lead changes, but the Crusaders pulled away, 25-18, to take the first two sets.  The Pandas were struggling to find an answer for LC senior Ego Onu, who slammed home one point after another.

“Their middle is fabulous,” said Bonner-Prendie coach Mary Callan.  “She (Onu) is a fabulous player.  We’ve seen her over the years.  I have brand new middles.  They’re new to varsity.  They’re trying to adjust and they’re doing a pretty good job, but they just had to adjust to her.  They haven’t seen anybody so far like that.  But I think by the third game they adjusted.”

That third set saw the Pandas {4-2 overall, 3-1 league} leading nearly the entire way.  But the Crusaders made a furious comeback, tying it for the first time at 24, before going on to complete the sweep, 26-24.

“We kind of go in to every PCL match kind of thinking, ok, we gotta win in three, we gotta win quickly,” said LC coach Katrina Pisch.  “They put up a really good fight.  They did a really nice job of handling our servers, and they put enough pressure on us that we couldn’t always get the ball where we wanted to get the ball.  They played really great so I was really impressed with them.”

With a tough early schedule, LC has taken a few loses.  But coach Pisch hopes the impressive showing against Bonner-Prendie is the start of something special.

“I’m not interested in playing our best volleyball in September,” Pisch said.  “I’m interested in playing our best volleyball in October, and right now that’s where we’re headed.”

Onu agreed:  “As a team so far we’ve had some ups and downs, but through talking and communication and just talking it out with each other, we can rise up from the mistakes we have on the court and get better.”

As for Bonner-Prendie, coach Callan expects some growing pains this season despite the fast start.

“I have a young team,” she said.  “It’s a whole new group coming up.  A lot played JV last year.  I only have like three returning starters.  We’re building.”