Bishop Guertin's Caitlin Harrington (7) goes up for a hit against Nashua South's Joelle Primo during Monday night's Division I city clash at the Belanger Gym. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – It’s just beyond the halfway point of the Division I high school girls volleyball season and the Bishop Guertin Cardinals are 8-1.

Did first-year coach Matt Erb expect that?

“That’s a tough question,” the BG mentor said after Monday night’s 3-1 win over city rival Nashua South at the Belanger Gym. “I looked at the schedule and knew if we prepared well enough we could win every game (match). But now that I look back, 8-1 sounds pretty good.”

But if Erb had his way, it would be never on Mondays as the team doesn’t practice Sundays and gets off to slow starts. They did win last night’s first set 25-19, but the Panthers went on a 12-1 run in the second set to even things with a 25-22 win, but BG held off the Panthers in the third set for a 25-20 win and cruised in the fourth, 25-10.

“We always, always, always pick it up toward the end,” Erb said. “I’ve been trying to get these girls to start earlier, but credit to them, they always finish with power and authority. … That’s the kind of team we can be, in that fourth set, against a tough defensive team.”

For South, which got a great overall match from Addison Campbell – four kills, three aces, 12 digs — it was a case of simply running out of gas. The Panthers fell to 2-6 after their fifth straight defeat in a tough part of their schedule.

“It’s a little frustrating,” South coach Tom Langer said of the flat deciding fourth set. “We have the energy and the talent to keep fighting back. And I’d like to think we have to start the game with that energy and finish with that energy.

“Maybe that’s the youth catching up with us. But we’ll get there.”

The best player on the court last night was once again BG’s Caitlin Harrington aho had a grand total of 19 kills. She made a fantasict diving dig near the end of the third set to save a point and then finished it off with a kill.

“She is a great player,” Langer said. “Outside, back row, she was flying from there. She’s a very talented player. She’s right up there. I think we did a decent job of trying to take her out of it, but once she got that (third) set, it was buckle up and pray.”

Riley Britton had 10 kills to lead South while Londyn Sullivan had nine kills. But keeping the Panthers in it until the fourth set was the senior Campbell.

“She has been playing some of the best volleyball I’ve seen of her career,” Langer said of Campbell. “She’s been rock solid on the back row and a leader on the court. She’s not going to rack up the numbers and the kills but she’s going to fight to get the important (points), she’s going to get them when we need it the most.”

Bishop Guertin’s Gilli Tejeda (16, center) leads the celebration for BG after a 3-1 win over Nashua South on Monday night. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

Guertin, meanwhile, got a great defensive game from Thalia Drapeau with five blocks and five kills. “Totally a monster defensively up at the net,” Erb said. “We’re still trying to get her offensively involved, but man she reads so well and jumps so high.”

Lydia Miller (six kills) and Alissa Maillet (16 digs) also were huge.

The Cards have Winnacunnet on Friday and then head to Derry next Monday for a biggie with current unbeaten Pinkerton.

“It’s really any given night,” Erb said.