Liberty's volleyball season came to an end in the opening round of the District 11 3A playoffs, but it didn't put a damper on the type of season the Hurricanes enjoyed.

Liberty lost to Nazareth in five games (25-19, 17-25, 18-25, 25-17, 15-11) to end their campaign at 10-6 overall. After finishing 6-12 a year ago and failing to reach the postseason, Neiad Ammary's team made substantial improvements in 2015.

"Largely, our season was a success," said Ammary. "I want to talk to the team about the accomplishments we made and what we have to do to improve next year. We wanted to work harder in the offseason and establish a feeder program and we did both of those. Now we need to have a focused offseason again to try and close the gap with teams like Parkland and Emmaus."

Liberty walks away from the season as East Penn Conference Steel Division champions, as well as participants in the EPC playoffs, where they lost to Emmaus in the semifinals of the four-team tournament.

With the Hurricanes last district championship coming in 2007, Ammary is hoping that he won't have to wait much longer moving forward to have a team that can compete for a title.

Forming the feeder program for the first time this season for some of Bethlehem's middle schools is a step in the right direction.

"We funded middle school club teams at Nitschmann, Northeast and Broughal and they all competed for a city championship with a CYO team," Ammary said. "Kids have also signed up for a U-14 Hurricane club volleyball team and that keeps kids connected. It's important we have that feeder system for us to ensure we have a next generation of volleyball players in the system."

The Hurricanes graduate three members from this years team including Samwel Omwega, David Strohl and Ryan McGuire and return a large portion of their starting lineup and rotation for next season.

That experience coming back should only pay dividends as the 'Canes look to work their way toward viable title contention.

"Experience and ability are two things that should help us next season," said Ammary. "We had the ability to beat Nazareth in districts and we proved that we could compete against a team like Emmaus.

"Experience does matter in sports at this level and I think we were lacking that a little bit in comparison to some other teams. I want to see a clear sense of purpose in the offseason training program and I think we can be a very good team next year."