Parkland and Whitehall have had some epic matches this season.

Tuesday’s District 11 Class 3A semifinal was the third time the teams have met in the past three weeks and not once has the match been settled in three games.

Tuesday’s night’s game had a bit more on the line than the last two meetings, with the winner advancing to the state playoffs and Thursday’s district title match against top-seeded Emmaus.

The Zephyrs came out on top Tuesday, 3-1 (25-28, 24-26, 25-18, 25-13) behind a 28-kill effort from senior middle outsider hitter Logan McGinley.

“I’ve said the difference between us and them has always been a point or two here or there,” said Parkland head coach Scott Trumbauer. “They have a couple kids that refuse to lose. They’re athletes and when athletes get determined to do something they do it. Logan [McGinley] is one of those players.”

Whitehall beat Parkland 3-2 in a regular season finale on May 11 and handed the Trojans a 3-1 loss in last week’s league playoffs.

The No. 2 seed Zephyrs opened districts with a 3-1 win over Northampton to advance to advance to Tuesday’s semifinals. Parkland, the No. 3 seed, beat Liberty in the quarterfinals.

The Zephyrs led all of tight game one Tuesday night at Allen High School before pulling away at the end.

Whitehall led early in game two before Parkland grabbed the lead at 18-17 on a kill by Garrett Weigel.The Trojans went ahead 22-20 on kills by Nicholas Mohr and Aaron Kuhlman and went on to win 26-24 to tie the match.

Whitehall pulled out to a 15-9 lead in the second game and didn’t look back. Parkland never got closer than four points of tying the third game.

The Zephs battled out of an early 3-0 hole in the fourth game before taking an 8-7 lead they would not relinquish. Parkland stayed close. A Michael Zeky kill had the Trojans within a point at 19-18, but a Devin Martinez block, a couple kills from Joseph Herman and McGinley’s final kill of the match sealed the 25-23 win.

Parkland ends the season at 16-3 overall, with it’s only losses coming to district finalists Whitehall and Emmaus.

Parkland replaced 13 of 15 players from last year’s roster and graduated it’s entire starting line up from last year.

The Trojans played with two sophomores and one or two freshmen on the court at most times this season. But it was the team’s seniors that took leadership of the team.

“They are truly the core of what carried us to where we got to this year,” said Trumbauer.

The veteran head coach didn’t want this year’s team to be overshadowed by the legacy of the past two seasons in which Parkland won state medals. He wanted this year’s team to have it’s own identity and felt it achieved that goal while also winning plenty of matches.

“All offseason and preseason, even into the season, everybody wanted to talk about last year’s team,” said Trumbauer. “[This year’s seniors] didn’t want to hear it and I didn’t want to hear it either. That’s in the past. This is their senior year and I wanted them to be the focal point and they were.”

Parkland graduates seniors Weigel, Zeky, Kuhlman, Sai Mallipedhi and Benjamin Hambel.