It seems that every year, the Emmaus and Parkland volleyball teams meet in the postseason. They have played some closely-contested matches during the 2016 regular season, and last Thursday night was no different.

After a thrilling five-set win against Bethlehem Catholic just two days earlier, the Green Hornets (14-7 overall, 12-5 EPC) were forced to rally for an Eastern Pennsylvania Conference semifinal match.

Parkland came out and played a sound match, winning all three games by scores of 25-20, 31-29, and 25-20 to advance to the league championship game.

“I thought we played really well but unfortunately we just made a few more errors than they did,” said Emmaus head coach Gwen Millets. “The match was exciting. Our blocking was great. Our middle hitters were really dominant and our defense was outstanding.”

Even with the defeat in straight sets, Emmaus battled to the end in each game, a lot like it had to do to in the quarterfinal match against the Golden Hawks. But Millets doesn’t think that match drained her team one bit, and wouldn’t give tired legs as an excuse for the loss to the Trojans.

“No I don’t think there was any kind of hangover from Tuesday night,” said Millets. “I know our team was really hyped to play Parkland and they were prepared to play hard against them.”

Each game was back-and-forth, and both teams made their runs. But neither team could grab a sizable lead in any game.

After a game one victory, Parkland was on the ropes

“Wow, it was just constantly back and forth,” said Millets. “Honestly, I don’t remember all of the details because of the sheer emotion of that set. I know our girls executed our game plan and gave everything they had during that set. We just came up a little short.”

Emmaus will now prepare to make a run in the District 11 Class 4A tournament, which begins this week.

“We are just really honored to be in districts once again,” said Millets. “The girls worked so hard during the season to get where they are right now. We are looking forward to playing the other great teams that also made districts and we just want to be able to continue to execute at a high level. As always, we will continue to work on our core fundamentals, teamwork and communication. We have such a wonderful group of girls at Emmaus and I know they will continue to work hard and rise to the occasion.”

Adelina Rivera-Woolard finished the match with 6 kills, and 5 blocks. Alyson Bohman tallied 8 kills, 5 blocks, and 3 digs, and Tiffany Hoppes had 15 digs.