October 19, 2012 7:00 a.m. UNION CITY — For the better part of the season, the Saegertown girls volleyball team wondered if it would ever catch a break.

The Lady Panthers had dealt with broken down buses. Balls that got lost in the rafters always seemed to fall right in place for the team on the opposite side of the net. But for some reason that never seemed to be the case for Saegertown.

“Some of the breaks other teams get we never seemed to get,” Saegertown outside hitter Courtney Lilly said. “It’s been really tough.”

Well, on Thursday night, the volleyball gods were finally on Saegertown’s side. And what a perfect time for the Lady Panthers.

Saegertown put itself in position to earn a District 10 Class A at-large playoff berth with a 25-15, 25-21, 23-25, 25-17 win over Union City.

The Panthers moved into sole possession of third place in Region 2, improving to 8-4 overall and in region play. They are battling with West Middlesex, Lakeview and Union City for one of two at-large playoff berths.

West Middlesex and Lakeview finished Thursday night’s action tied for third place in Region 1 at 8-4 in the region. Union City, with its loss to Saegertown, fell to 7-5 in Region 2 and 9-6 overall.

“We still have to win Tuesday and we still have to win Thursday,” Saegertown coach Brian Shoop said.

True. But last night’s win was a step in the right direction in several facets.

Saegertown took perhaps the biggest step when it came to composure.

Union City went into last night’s match in a must-win situation. The Union City Krazies — Union City’s student cheering section — was out in droves. The community packed the stands. They were all there to see the Lady Bears move closer to their first District 10 playoff berth ever, according to head coach Sherri Miller.

That party, though, looked like it would end abruptly. In the first two sets, everything went the Panthers’ way. Kills were dropping just inside the lines. Hits off blocks were landing just outside those very lines.

That was not the case for the Bears. In Game 1, Union City gave Saegertown 14 points off errors. Union City did catch a few breaks in Game 2 to rally back from a 22-10 deficit and cut the Panthers lead to just three (23-20). But it wasn’t enough to keep the Cats from taking a two-set advantage.

“A lot of hitting errors all night long,” Miller said. “It killed us. That was the game … The hitting errors. Other than that I thought we passed well. We just couldn’t keep the ball in the court.”

The Bears did make it awfully interesting though and really put the Panthers’ to the test in the third set. With its season potentially on the line, Union City went into that third game with everything to lose and it played with a ton of emotion. The result was a 20-12 lead over the Panthers.

Saegertown did rally back from trailing 24-16 to pull to within one 24-23, but a Panthers’ serving error gave the Bears a 25-23 win and life.

The Panthers had a couple of options right there, Shoop said. They could either capitalize on the run they made in the end and steal away the momentum or they could allow the Bears to carry on.

“Although we were losing in that third set, I told them during a timeout I said, ‘We’re going to score some more points,’” Shoop said. “‘We’re going to get that momentum on our side and carry it into the fourth game and get out of here.’”

Union City did stick with the Panthers early on in that fourth set. But then Lilly stepped to the service line. Lilly served up five straight to give the Panthers an 18-12 lead, putting the game and match away.

“We have come a long ways this year,” Miller said. “But it would have been really nice to make it to the playoffs for the first time ever. That’s disappointing.”

The Bears still have a shot to make the postseason, but would likely need to win out. That includes knocking off state-ranked Maplewood in the final game of the regular season on Thursday.

Lilly had a monstrous night for the Panthers all over the court. She finished with 17 kills and 14 service points, including three aces. Rachel DiBartolomeo had 37 assists and 13 service points. McKenna Morian added 11 kills and 15 digs. Sarah Allen had 11 digs.

For the Bears, Taylor Miller had 22 assists and 10 digs. Sabrina Nirmaier had 12 points, including five aces, and 13 digs. Lauren Miller had nine kills and nine blocks. Noelle Wienczkowski had eight kills.