Coming off a five-game thriller between Emmaus and Liberty just four nights earlier, the Green Hornet girls volleyball team had another tough test awaiting it Monday night. And the Hornets were motivated to face the defending state champion and rival Parkland.

“The girls are always up for this game and ready to go,” said head coach Gwen Millets. “They love playing against Parkland because of the rivalry and because they are all friends off the court.”

But once the first ball was hit, any momentum Emmaus (5-2 overall) may have had before the game, was quickly wiped away by the hard-hitting and enthusiastic Trojans.

Parkland used its powerful hitting to take advantage of some errors by the Green Hornets. The Trojans won the first of two regular season matches between these two teams last Monday night at Parkland High School by scores of 25-15, 25-14, 25-11.

“The girls were really excited for this one,” noted Millets. “But then once the game started, I don’t think they knew what to do in some situations. Parkland is a great team, and they hit the ball well, but I think we made some mental mistakes that we need to clean up.”

The Trojans were led up front by senior Sam Graver (20 kills) and Grace Steurer (11 kills). They’re hitting power was fueled by the passing of senior setter Morgan Sherwin (34 assists).

“I think the key to all of this was we had too many unforced errors,” Millets added. “I was very happy with our blocking the last couple of games, but tonight it wasn’t there. We need to tweak it a little bit, and be more aggressive on the blocks and on our defense. To beat teams like this, we need to be more polished at times.”

Parkland was coming off a weekend where it lost to Bishop Shanahan (ranked No. 2 the state in Class 3A) in the Trojans’ home tournament. Liberty, which is ranked No. 1 in the state in Class 3A) won the tournament just two days after coming back from down two games to none to beat Emmaus. The last two losses for the Green Hornets have been completely different however.

“I think during the match with Liberty, the girls knew that we could beat them,” stated Millets. “We can play with anyone. We beat Becahi, and were a couple points away from beating Liberty. I was happy with the way we played last week against those two teams. But I think t[against Parkland] we needed to be more aggressive like we were last week. When they see those Parkland jerseys, they get so hyped for it, and then it just doesn’t happen. We will reevaluate everything at practice tomorrow.”

Emmaus won’t have to sit and think about this loss too long. The Green Hornets are back out on the court Wednesday against Allen.