The East Penn Conference volleyball playoffs will wrap up with Wednesday’s championship match between Emmaus and Whitehall, but the District 11 3A tournament will kick into action immediately on Thursday night with the pigtail and quarterfinal rounds taking place.

Freedom enters the tournament as the eighth seed and will open up at Emmaus to take on ninth seeded Easton at 5:30 p.m. with the winner then slated to take on the top-seeded Green Hornets (16-0) at 7 p.m.

The Patriots (11-9) swept Easton (9-9) in their only encounter this season, but were swept by Emmaus in both of their matches. The closest Freedom came within Emmaus in their six sets this season was five points.

Liberty didn’t get a favorable seeding to start the tournament either, as the sixth-seeded Hurricanes (12-6) face off against third-seeded Parkland (15-2) Thursday night at 6 p.m.

The Trojans swept Liberty in their only encounter this year posting a convincing 25-16, 25-11, 25-15 win in the process on April 24.

“While it may be a tougher road than we imagined, we know that we’ve got to beat whoever is across the net from us if we hope to reach the championship,” said Liberty head coach Neiad Ammary. “We didn’t play particularly well against Parkland a few weeks ago, the only time we played them this season, so I’m looking forward to seeing how we compete this time around. I’m looking to see improvement, as well as how our young players handle the playoff pressure. Although Parkland lost a lot of their best players to graduation last year like we did, their returners are more experienced than ours.”

Emmaus, Parkland and Whitehall are the favorites to reach the D11 championship match, which is where Bethlehem Catholic hopes to be in next week’s 2A bracket.

The 2A tournament only features four teams, as the second-seeded Hawks (8-9) open up play next Tuesday at home against third-seeded Pottsville (3-7).

Dock Mennonite Academy (11-7) is the top-seed and plays Southern Lehigh (1-9) in the other semifinal.