The Panthers (6-0, 3-0) hit their way to a 25-9, 25-14, 25-8 victory to remain atop the Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Athletic Association Central Division after besting the Golden Falcons (2-4, 2-1) earlier in the season in tournament play.

“We played Falconer in their tournament and they have improved so much,” Panama head coach Tammy Hosier said. “They’re better than they were at the tournament. Marah is doing a great job with them. They are scrappy and they are fun to play. The score didn’t really indicate how good they did. We had to work hard to put a ball away. Very few times did we put the ball away on our first attempt.”

The Golden Falcons would hang close to Panama through the early portion of Game 1. Alexis Finnerty got out to a hot start for the Panthers, hitting home a pair of overhands before Kylie Schnars got into the action with a block.

Falconer would return the favor with a duo block by Tesika Kilmer and Emily Melquist to bring things back to even at 6-6.

The Golden Falcons’ Emily Melquist makes a pass as teammate Allisen DeJesus looks on.

Alexis Finnerty would strike another overhand to put Panama back in the lead, which was followed by a short winner from Mandy Brink and an ace by Ally Finnerty.

The hosts would double up on Falconer, stretching their lead to 12-6 after a nice defensive save from Alexis Finnerty on the left sideline.

With that margin in hand, senior Natalie Angeletti stepped on the gas down the stretch, finishing off five points for the Panthers to complete the opening frame.

“Natalie had a great game tonight,” Hosier said. “She’s got the back row getting that ball up there and honestly my back row, my libero Marra Hovey, and Ally Finnerty, I couldn’t be more happy with them. They had some almost perfect passes to our setter which doesn’t happen a whole lot.”

Aiding the strong play of Panama’s back row was the setting of Maddie Johnson, who would end her night with 25 assists, four aces and three digs.

Angeletti and Schnars would keep the offense rolling early in Game 2 while Serena Camarata was able to keep Falconer close with a tip winner at the net.

Rachael Harper would add a big block for the Golden Falcons, but a pair of errors cost the visitors early as Panama broke out to a 12-8 lead. The Panthers would keep that margin thanks to some more kills from Angeletti and Schnars.

“We prepared the best we can for the strong hitting,” Falconer head coach Marah Micek said. “We worked a lot on our blocking and Kylie and Natalie are awesome hitters. They’ve been on varsity for a few years now. They are very consistent.”

Falconer would suffer from some more hitting errors early in the third frame while Ashlyn Harvey got into the offense for Panama with a kill off a nice set by Ally Finnerty.

Strong serving by Mandy Brink and more kills from Angeletti and Schnars would push Panama over the finish line.

“I think we get better every game. We’re competing. I think we played better than the score showed tonight, we’re getting scrappier. They are learning to play better defense, better passing and starting to learn some more ball control,” Micek said. “My goal is to be top three in our league and just to keep pushing and make a run in the playoffs. I think we have that capability. We’re starting to put together passing and once we start learning to hit and put the ball down I think we’ll be a really successful team.”

NOTES: Ava Fenton grabbed four assists; Harper five digs, three blocks and two kills; and Melquist six digs and two kills for Falconer. … Angeletti had 15 kills, a block and two digs; Schnars six kills, a block and a dig; Harvey five kills; Hovey seven digs; Brink five digs, 14 points, three aces and a kill; and Ally Finnerty six digs, two aces and nine points for Panama.