Greencastle-Antrim won a second straight District 3 Class 3A girls volleyball championship on Thursday night, defeating Middletown 3-0.

DALLASTOWN — Both teams entered Thursday night’s District 3 Class 3A girls volleyball championship match with unbeaten records.

Greencastle-Antrim was 20-0, Middletown was 18-0 and the Blue Raiders had not even lost a set all season.

But the Blue Devils put it to Middletown in a 3-0 victory (26-24, 25-18 and 25-14) at Dallastown H.S. for their second straight district crown.

And Game 1 turned out to be huge.

Greencastle rallied from a 14-10 deficit and won the final two points in a 26-24 victory on kills by Abby Eagler and Kylie Kerns.

“I’m not surprised we won, but I didn’t expect 3-0,” Kerns said. “We really had a lot of energy and we all played together really well.”

With the score 15-12 in the Blue Raiders’ favor, G-A’s Wren Roberts served for 7 consecutive points for a 19-15 lead. Middletown staved off two set points and tied it 24-24 before G-A closed it out.

“I told them before we started that if we could win that first game, it would set the tone and change things for them,” Greencastle coach Madee Goodwin said. “They hadn’t lost a set all year, so we hoped that would make them change their mindset.”

Middletown had plenty of success early with outside hitter Katelyn Wagner, who had 5 kills in her team’s first 14 points.

“We changed up some on our blocking, and we tried to take her out as much as possible with our serves,” Goodwin said.

Wagner had only 7 more kills in rest of the match.

In Game 2, the Blue Raiders scored the first 2 points, but a 6-point run with Roberts serving produced a 6-2 G-A lead. Ahead 8-6, the Blue Devils scored 5 straight with Eagler contributing two aces and a pair of kills.

The score rose to 21-9 before Middletown rallied, but it never got closer than an 8-point deficit, with the score finishing at 25-18.

Eagler, who led G-A with 17 kills, said, “I just think we came out with a higher intensity, and when got got ahead of them it made our confidence grow.”

Greencastle had an effective Wagner in the lineup, too, with middle hitter Jordyn Wagner producing 4 blocks and 7 kills. In Game 2, she had 2 block kills and 2 other kills.

Wagner said, “Usually we don’t do much attacking in the middle, but we did more tonight, trying to throw off their blocking early in the match.”

The third set was much like the second, with Middletown going up 2-0, the Blue Devils coming back to take the lead, making it 8-4 on two aces by Kaitlyn Alvey, and then gradually pulling away.

Kerns served for 5 consecutive points to leave the score 15-7 and the Blue Devils had taken the fight out of Middletown. The game ended with a 25-14 score.

“The 3-0 score was a surprise, but we were ready for them,” Eagler said.

Greencastle did just about everything well, but serving may have been at the top of the list. Roberts led with 16 points, Eagler (3 aces) and Kerns each had 8 points, and Alvey and Hayden Baer each had 4 points.

“We wanted to keep them out of system, and I think our serves did that,” Kerns said. “And we only had two or three service errors.”

Goodwin said, “That was one of our best service matches. We hit the seams and hit our spots. We followed the game plan to a T.

“Jordyn had a lot of blocks in the middle and Kylie was aggressive on her hits. I told the girls not to be fearful or scared, to go for it. And they did.”

The Blue Devils will begin play in the PIAA Tournament on Tuesday evening with a home match against the third-place team from District 12.

NOTES: Greencastle total 7 block kills … G-A had only 3 service errors and 3 serve receive errors … Eagler led in digs with 18, Roberts had 14, Kerns 13 and Kinzee Hudson 11 … Alvey (19) and Kerns (14) led in assists … Hayleigh Lowe added 4 kills and 2 blocks.