After watching his team get defeated 25-16 in the third set of Saturday's District 11 championship match against Southern Lehigh, head coach Mike Krause gathered the Trojans for a talk before the fourth set.

Ahead two games to one, but with momentum working against Parkland, Krause didn't take the time to revamp his strategy or shuffle his rotation.

Instead he told the girls a story.

"After the third set I told them a little story about a boy who dreamed of being a fireman," Krause said. "The little boy believed, and his dreams came true. So there's nothing wrong with believing. I told them, 'We believe in ourselves. Let's go see what we can do.'"

The inspiration paid off for the Trojans, who won the fourth game decisively to score their third straight District 11 title, topping the Spartans 25-19, 25-21, 16-25, 25-17.

Parkland, the defending state champ and state's top-ranked team, advanced to the state tournament and started with a 3-0 win over District 2 champ Delaware Valley on Tuesday night. The victory sets up a possible showdown with District 1 champ Bishop Shanahan, third in the state, on Saturday. Shanahan took on Strath Haven on Wednesday night and defeated the Trojans earlier this year in tournament play. The quarterfinals are set for this Saturday at a site and time to be determined.

Last Saturday, however, belonged to the Trojans. Facing a Southern Lehigh team that moved up to the Class 3A level this season and was seen as a threat to Parkland, the Lehigh Valley Conference champs looked every bit the top seeded team in the tournament.

Parkland got off to fast starts in the first two games, building leads of 7-3 in each game. Kelly Robertson, the league MVP, was instrumental in the Trojans imposing their will, as setter Taylor Krause found her early and often. Robertson finished the match with 22 kills, with a large percentage of them coming early on in the games.

"We were a little nervous, especially after the third game, because they're a good team and they were capable of doing that again," Robertson said. "But I think it was mostly a wakeup call for us. But we knew we had to get it together and that we couldn't take them lightly."

While Southern Lehigh brought a group of talented players and challenged Robertson, they couldn't match up with the Trojans other hitters, like Veronica Koval, Alicia Weigel and Mary Zacher, who all came up with important kills.

"Attacking out of the middle is very difficult to defend," Coach Krause said. "When Kelly's on, she's hitting it extremely hard and we were able to pass the ball to enable us to attack.

Parkland's back line players were very active as Callie Krajcir, Taylor Krause, Abby Hawk and Morgan Rentzheimer saved several would be points with diving digs and perfect positioning.

In all three sets that Parkland won, the girls trailed just twice, both coming early in the fourth and final game.

"It was a matter of forgetting the negatives and pursuing our dreams," Coach Krause said. "It was all about belief. If we believe in each other, we feel pretty good about our chances."

Unlike past seasons, this year's state tournament isn't in pool play format, meaning the Trojans need victories to keep their season alive.