Emmaus walked into Whitehall's gymnasium Tuesday night sporting Hawaiian outfits. Whitehall came into their home gym equipped with confidence.

No matter how they entered the District 11 3A volleyball semifinals, both came out on top.

The Zephyrs and Green Hornets each pulled off upset victories to set up a scrappy district championship tonight, back at Whitehall, for a 7 p.m. tip.

Emmaus shocked top-seeded, LVC champion, Parkland in four games (23-25, 29-27, 25-22, 25-18), while Whitehall, the sixth-seed, stunned second-seeded Liberty with a three-game sweep 25-19, 25-23, 25-22.

It was a night for the underdogs and both coaches reveled in the moment.

"We were more relaxed tonight and I knew I needed to change some things up after losing to them [Parkland] last week [in the LVC semifinal]," said Emmaus head coach Deb Schlosser. "That's part of the reason we wore the Hawaiian outfits, too keep them more relaxed. I knew we didn't have to change a lot, but I'm glad we won."

Whitehall head coach George Cowitch saw his team pull away in each of their three games, only to see the final point scored to come from a botched attempt by Liberty to return the final serve.

"It's an unbelievable feeling," said Cowitch of the win. "I think our guys decided after we were up two games that we needed to put the game away. It was either we do it or don't and they went out and played hard."

Emmaus went out and did the improbable upset, winning all three of their games in dramatic fashion.

The Hornets looked head on to a 24-all score in the second game, only to pull out a monumental 29-27 win.

They stared at a 20-12 deficit in the third game, but outscored Parkland 13-2 to end the game with a 25-22 victory.

They finally closed the door on their arch rival in the fourth game, pulling ahead early and never looking back en route to a 25-18 win.

"We went on cruise control in parts of the game when we shouldn't have," said Parkland head coach Scott Trumbauer. "A lot of things that went wrong, happened in key moments. It's just disappointing for our seniors because they've worked so hard to get to this point."

Parkland was the odds on favorite to win the district title, but that has changed.

What hasn't changed is Whitehall's belief, as they took care of business in their bracket with upset wins over Delaware Valley and Liberty.

They hope they can score a trifecta tonight.

"We need to be consistent and stick to the game plan like we did here," said Cowitch about knocking off Emmaus. "You just can't make mistakes if you want to win at this level."

***

In middle school action, the Maroon team lost to Nazareth but defeated Easton, Eyer, Lower Mac and Trexler in games from the middle to end of April. The Gold team also lost to Nazareth but beat Easton, Eyer and Trexler. Gold lost to Lower Mac.

Playing well for the middle school teams are: Joey Maamari, Logan McGinley, Ty Shafnisky and Kori Zacarias.