Northwestern Lehigh had too much firepower, too many big guns and a lot more aggressiveness than Tamaqua in a non-league volleyball match on Wednesday.

At times, the Tigers’ pressure was stifling and although the Blue Raiders never backed down, they struggled to keep up with the visitors and dropped a 25-18, 25-8, 25-5 decision.

“We’ve become more and more aggressive, which we’ve been preaching to our kids since our opening game,” said Tigers’ head coach Mike Maston after his team evened its record at 2-2 on the season.

Tamaqua hung with Northwestern in the early stages of the opening game, forging a pair of early ties at 6-6 and 7-7. The second tie came when Ashlyn Houser drilled an ace for the Raiders.

Northwestern then took charge as it ripped off runs of eight and six points to quickly stretch its lead to 21-8. The Tigers rode the solid serving of sophomore Shannon Green during the stretch.

Much to its credit, Tamaqua came to a life, reeling off eight points with Sarah Coccio in serve to close the deficit. However, the Tigers regrouped and sealed the opening-game win.

“I told the girls to keep playing,” Maston said about his advice after the opening-game win. “Sure, we had that early lead, but we just wanted to continue to play upbeat.

“Because we did, some of our younger players got a chance.”

Indeed, that was the case. Particularly impressive were freshman Leah Nagle, and sophomores Norah Silfies and Siena Almonti, who were all part of the late second game and the third game Tiger lineup.

The Tigers kept pressing and ran off a 15-0 run to open the second game as both Nagle and senior Jenna Brininger - a terrific outside hitting southpaw - controlled play at the net.

“Brininger is a very solid player. She can make those types of plays you saw tonight,” said Maston. “We inserted Leah to get her some time and it all worked it for us.”

Tamaqua tried over and over to get its offense in gear, but the overpowering Tigers were just too much for the Raiders to handle.

“I was pleased that we were able to get a lot of the younger players in the game,” Maston said. “We’re going to need some depth as we go deeper into the season.”

GETTING IT DONE

… Brininger is a force and hits with power. Keep an eye on Bailey Murray; the sophomore outside hitter is only going to get better. Senior Avrie Zentz should be in the middle of the action, too.

COUNTING THINGS UP

… Green was strong with her sets collecting 24 assists, and also had four aces and four digs. Brininger led the Tigers at the net with 11 kills. She also added eight digs and four aces. Murray collected six kills, two digs and two aces. Brooke Dawn was strong defensively with 22 digs. She also added four aces.

TOP RAIDERS ... For Tamaqua, Lacey Beers had seven digs, Sarah Coccio had three blocks, and Eileen Lusch added two aces.