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LAWRENCE — In the end, No. 2 was the undisputed No. 1.

Entering the Division 1 North volleyball tournament seeded second despite having beaten top-seeded Andover twice, Central Catholic pulled off the season trifecta. With its straight-set 25-23, 25-17, 18-26 victory last night at Lawrence High School, the Raiders have now won four of its past five North tourneys, including three Division 2 titles from in 2007 and 08.

ANDOVER — More of the same! That’s what the Andover girls volleyball team will be looking for tomorrow night (6 p.m. at Lawrence High) when it faces Central Catholic for the third time this year, this time in the Division 1 North championship. If the Golden Warriors can just play like they did last night while sweeping North Andover 25-13, 25-12 and 25-18 in the semifinals, they’ll do just fine according to veteran head coach George Sullivan. “We played very well tonight,” said Sullivan. “If we can carry this over, we’ll be right there with them (Central). We’re playing much better now than we were, but we need to just go out there and play without thinking about it.” Sullivan will certainly be looking for more of the same from 5-foot-11 senior hitter Elise Brogan, who led the Warriors (20-2) last night with 15 kills and five blocks and was particularly immense in the opening game. She has needed to take on a bigger role since co-captain Ava Bakhtyari got injured in the eighth game of the season. “It took us awhile after Ava got hurt to figure out what we had to do, but now I think we have a system down,” said Brogan. “We just have to block and play better defense against them (Central),” Brogan had plenty of help against the Knights. Co-captain Sarah Arvidson had 11 kills and led the team with 12 digs, Lauren Murtagh and Becky Hoffman were one-two in both assists and service points and Molly Cronin, Lauren Gibson and Sarah Weiner were added options at the net. For the second straight match, all 14 players got in the game. In what was the play of the night, on a ball that was going way deep, Arvidson and Weiner made brilliant recovery saves and Brogan finished off the point with her first of two straight kills in the third game. Good as they played, the Warriors must put this game behind them and start focusing on Central — without going overboard. “We’re definitely looking forward to playing them again, but we can’t get nervous,” said Brogan. “I think we were playing nervous against them last time.” For North Andover (17-6), Julia Titone led the way with six kills and five blocks despite turning her ankle in the opening game and getting it taped for the rest of the match. Kaylee Lambrinos had 19 digs to key the defense. “They’re tough at the net and their defense was really good — we couldn’t find an open spot,” said North Andover coach Veronica Schaefer. “But we had a successful season. I was pleased with how things went.”  

Liberal substitutions made the score a bit closer, but top seed Andover was in firm control in its 3-0 volleyball victory over No. 8 Masconomet.

The victory sets up a Division 1 North semifinal showdown with No. 5 North Andover tomorrow night at Andover.

Becky Hoffman put on a show with 14 straight service points in Game 1 and Andover rolled to a 3-0 volleyball win over Methuen. The Golden Warriors can earn a share of the MVC title with a win over Central at Lawrence High Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.

Complete efforts from Elise Brogan (13 kills and 5 blocks) and Lauren Murtagh (16 assists, 18 service points and 5 aces) helped Andover win a deceptive 3-0 volleyball match over Reading. Murtagh served 10 straight points in the third game to power the Warriors (16-1) to their strong finish.

LAWRENCE — For the first time all season, senior standout Hunter Tuck did not lead the Central Catholic volleyball team in kills last night against archrival Andover, finishing with the fourth highest total on the team. Not a good thing, right? Wrong! Showing unusual depth at the net, and all over the court, the Raiders (9-3) handed the previously unbeaten Golden Warriors (9-1) their first regular season loss in two years, 3-1. Andover entered the game without the services of standout senior Ava Bakhtari, who tore her ACL last week, but things evened out quickly when Raider starting middle hitter Mary Foggo turned an ankle early in the first game and was lost for the rest of the evening. “It’s tough to lose one of your best players but we have the players to replace anyone,” said Tuck. “We have a lot of confidence in anyone who comes in.” Replacing Foggo was sophomore Amanda Williams and she responded with seven kills and a team-high four blocks and, along with Alex Borrelli (team-high 14 kills), Steph Graffeo (9 kills) and Tuck (5 kills), gave the Raiders plenty of options up front. Williams looked comfortable from the start and Central stormed to a 25-15 victory in the first game. But Andover rallied in the second game behind underrated junior Elizabeth Wait (team-high 15 kills) and Eagle-Tribune All-Star Sarah Arvidson (13 kills) to tie up the match with a 25-15 win of its own. Central responded in the third game, thanks to five straight service points late in the game by Tuck and two key points by Borrelli, to prevail 25-21, setting up a wild third game that the Raiders — showing some outstanding defense led by junior Michelle Bouchard — eventually pulled out, 30-28, for the victory. “This is just a really big win for us,” said Central coach Gannon Paris. “The MVC title is basically on the line and we want to show that we’re up there with them. They swept us three times and you have to beat them if you want to be considered one of the best. “This was really satisfying. We played well as a team but I can’t say enough about the job Amanda Williams did coming in. I think this team is as deep as any I’ve had and she was a prime example.” Andover coach George Sullivan, while proud of the his team’s effort, said: “Without question, we missed Ava and we’re going to need a couple of more girls step up. We need to be more consistent ... we end the (regular) season with them, so we’ll see how we do then.” Elise Brogan played strong at the net in the final game for Andover and led the team with 3 1/2 blocks. Lauren Murtagh was high in both assists (21) and service points (17).  

Andover whipped Chelmsford, 3-0, behind the play of Marcela Familiar-Bolanos (9 digs). Chelmsford used to own Andover but the high-flying Golden Warriors have long since made up for that.