It was a tale of two stories during Tuesday night's semifinal round of the District 11 Class AAA volleyball playoffs. Both were completely different, but ultimately led to the conceived title fight that fans will see Thursday when Parkland and Emmaus square off at Liberty's Memorial Gymnasium for the district crown.

The Trojans (19-0) kept their season perfect in relatively easy fashion, sweeping Nazareth 25-12, 25-17, 25-21 and marching onto the district championship as they were supposed to.

Tuesday's semifinal opener, however, was thrilling from start to finish, as Emmaus (16-2) held off a scrappy Whitehall (11-7) squad in five games 25-20, 28-26, 25-27, 22-25, 16-14 to set up a rematch of the East Penn Conference championship, which saw Parkland sweep Emmaus last week.

Despite his team passing every test this season, Parkland head coach Scott Trumbauer knows his program has one more step if it wants to add the programs eighth district championship to their mantle.

"I told them that this is big one in terms of our goals for this season," he said of Thursday's rematch with the Trojans. "We have to come out and earn the title, rather than think that it's going to be given to us."

Emmaus looked as it they were going to sweep Whitehall following a crucial victory in the second set, which saw Whitehall lose a 24-20 lead en route to the Hornets stealing a 28-26 victory, which put the Zephs down 2-0 in the series. However, Whitehall never gave up, as they won the next two sets to force a deciding fifth set.

That momentum continued in the final frame, as they grabbed a 12-7 lead to prompt an Emmaus timeout. The Hornets rattled off six of the next seven points to even the set at 13, before finally pulling out the win.

"When you're down by five that close to the end of the fifth set, there's certainly doubt that creeps in," said Emmaus head coach Ken Dunkle. "I was definitely concerned, but I knew we had the ability to come back, but it was just a matter of the kids believing that."

For Whitehall head coach George Cowitch, the loss was a tough pill to swallow, but one he took with pride for how his team battled.

"To be honest, this match shouldn't have went to five," Cowitch said. "We had them [Emmaus] in four and unfortunately we went there. We controlled most of the match, but we just came up a little short. We just couldn't close out at the end and it was all mental, but to battle the way we did against a team with eight seniors was impressive."

After taking all six sets in two meetings with Emmaus this season, Trumbauer knows crazier things have happened in the sport.

"I told our guys the Parkland girls were undefeated a couple years ago and got swept by Emmaus in the district semifinals," he said. "It can happen. I think our guys understand what's at stake. We can't expect the same result every time we play out there, but if we play the way we're capable of, we should take care of business."