During last week’s District 11 Class 3A volleyball championships, Liberty was able to accomplish something against Parkland that no other Eastern Pennsylvania Conference team was able to do this season-win a set.

After Parkland jumped ahead 2-0 and held a 10-7 lead in the third set, Liberty began the journey of reversing that trend. Shortly later, the Hurricanes had won a set over the top-ranked team in the state in Class 3A and were very much alive late in the fourth set, trailing just 23-22.

But Parkland’s experience paid off down the stretch, as the top-ranked Trojans took the fourth set and the match, 3-1 (25-20, 25-15, 22-25, 25-23), over No. 3 ranked Liberty at Allen High School. It was Parkland’s third straight district title.

“I’m happy we got pushed,” said Parkland head coach Scott Trumbauer. “I’m happy we saw some of our flaws and some of the uncharacteristic things we did in clutch situations that we have to work on. But you can’t be upset about a district title.”

Parkland (19-1), which jumped out to a seemingly comfortable lead of 20-11 in the fourth set, was well on its way to another title, it just took a little longer than expected after the Hurricanes went on a furious 9-3 run that forced Trumbauer to call a timeout.

“Pretty much the same thing he’s been preaching,” senior opposite hitter Kyle Stout said of Trumbauer’s message. “Stay calm when they go on a run. We just have to get one pass to bounce back. He preaches that. It was the same thing in the third set when Brett [Bosak] was going on that serving run. We just needed one pass to get out of it.”

Liberty got a block at the net immediately after the timeout to make it a 23-22 Parkland advantage, but Andrew Hillman (team-high 11 kills) kept the Canes at a distance with a kill on the next point. Stout then came up with the game-winning kill moments later with a blast over the left side of the net.

“Kyle is taking a swing on the outside, which is not his normal position, with a chance to either tie it or win it,” Trumbauer said. “He came through big.”

“I kind of looked at Hillman and gave him a little wink, telling him I wanted the ball,” said Stout, who recorded 9 kills. “But I trust any of the two other hitters out on the court. Just like the state championship last year when Jack [Dreisbach] had the game-winning kill. It’s really just one play in the game, but it was a great feeling.”

Dreisbach may not have recorded the game-winning kill, but he left an imprint on the game. He recorded three big blocks during a pivotal stretch in the second set that broke open a two-point Trojan lead into a 13-6 advantage.

While the Trojans were able to take the first set, Liberty was once again nipping at their heels. The Hurricanes went on a late 7-3 spurt that got them within 21-19 before coming up five points short. That momentum gradually grew as the match went on.

Their aggressive play and tenacity didn’t surprise the Trojans, and it can only help during their quest for their second straight state title in the upcoming weeks.

“We knew that they’re a great team,” Stout said. “Especially we knew in the fourth set, after that third set, that they were going to come out with a lot of fire.”

Regardless of how easy or hard it may have been, the Trojans find themselves on top of the district mountain once again. They’ll open up states on Wednesday against District 1’s Council Rock North at Liberty High School at 7 p.m.

“We’re going to take it one game at a time,” Stout said. “We have a saying that we have three goals this year; we got two of them so far, so we are trying to get the third now.”