AMHERST — There was a point during the North Tonawanda girls volleyball team’s first tournament of the season where the Lady Jacks battled back to win their match. They’ve been fighters all fall, and they proved it once more Thursday night in defeating ECIC powerhouse Orchard Park 3-1 to claim their first Section VI title since 1999.

“I can’t even put it into words. It is overwhelming,” said junior Lauren Metzger, who had 23 digs and 12 kills for the Lady Jacks, who won the match on game scores of 26-24, 19-25, 25-15 and 25-19 to advance to next Saturday’s Far West Regionals, where they’ll take on the Class AA winner from Section V at Lockport High School. “I cannot believe we came this far,” Metzger added. “We’ve been the underdogs in every single match. We’ve been ranked way lower than we should have been. We came out, fought and played incredible”

Delaney Laper had seven aces, 16 digs and 18 kills, and senior Taylor Akins added 19 digs for North Tonawanda. Olivia DiPalma had seven blocks.

Thursday’s victory offered great satisfaction for a North Tonawanda squad that spent the entire season ranked behind such ECIC powerhouses as Orchard Park, Frontier and Lancaster. In capturing the Section VI title, the fourth-seeded Lady Jacks showed the Niagara Frontier League can also play some pretty good volleyball. Orchard Park was the No. 3 seed in the tournament.

“We’ve been underrated this whole season and now we came out and proved that we should be on top,” Akins said.

NT set the tone for the match by fighting back from a five-point deficit in the first game and holding off the Quakers at the end to take that set 26-24. After trailing 15-10 in the set, Laper served a slew of points to tie it at 16-16. OP regained the lead and was in position to take the first set, holding a 24-19 advantage. But the Lady Jacks rallied back with Metzger and Laper recording key kills and NT’s front row play of Sarah Hansen, Ashley Walck and Jordan Tylec putting up strong blocks to allow the Lady Jacks to close the gap. Metzger served out the win.

After OP tied the match by taking the second set, both teams traded points through a close third game, until NT broke a 10-10 tie with Metzger serving, and the Lady Jacks didn’t look back in that game, setting up the decisive fourth set.

Showing they wanted the title, the Lady Jacks got out to a strong start, taking a 10-5 lead before OP got back into the game, tying the set at 11-11. After trailing 14-11, NT stormed back once more. The Lady Jacks won the match with Laper serving out the last six points. Orchard Park tried to stall NT’s momentum with two timeouts, but the Lady Jacks, with Metzger pumping her teammates up toward the end, were too solid.

“At points we got down, but we refused to lose,” Akins said. “We were going to do anything to win, no matter how much it took. People were diving all over the floor.”

“We started very strong, sat back and let them get a lead again, and then turned it on again right at the end,” NT coach Jessica Anderson said of her team’s play in the fourth set. Unlike teams in previous years, Anderson knew the ‘09 Lady Jacks possessed the qualities to fight back in matches. “Last year, the year before, we weren’t able to do that,” she said. “This year, from that first tournament, they’re like, you know what, we can come back.”