With Whitehall’s recent volleyball matches against two Bethlehem schools going to five sets, resulting in a pair of tough losses, the hope is that they will serve as learning lessons for future tight contests.

Head coach Paul Abi-Daher firmly believes his team needs to find a way to win those close matches. They lost 3-2 to Liberty last week, and then dropped a match to Bethlehem Catholic by the same score on Tuesday. Sandwiched in between was a win against William Allen.

“We made too many mistakes to win on a night like this,” said Abi-Daher after Tuesday’s loss. “We have to be more consistent in every aspect of the game.”

The Zephs are currently 4-2 with matches against Northampton and Allentown Central Catholic set for later this week.

Abi-Daher said that when playing a strong opponent such as Liberty, who won the conference last year, they can’t afford to have any mental lapses. That’s especially true in the deciding fifth sets where they fell to the two Christmas City opponents.

“The thing is, we have to learn how to win,” said Abi-Daher. “And how to win is stepping it up at the end of each set. And at the end of the fifth set, we have to step it up even more, and what we didn’t do was execute at the end of that fifth set.”

Tuesday’s match against the Golden Hawks pitted Abi-Daher against his former school, having been the head coach at Bethlehem Catholic for five years before coming to Whitehall this season.

They won the first set 25-17, but dropped the next two, making the fourth set a must-win to extend the match. They responded with a huge effort, taking that set 25-14. In that set Kristen Spengler was a force at the net, registering kill after kill as she helped the Zephs build a 10-point lead. Later in the set, Caitlin Kier asserted herself at the net, knocking down back-to-back kills that got the Zephs closer to 25 before Spengler iced the set with a kill.

Libero Taylor Levan had a strong service game during that set as well, as she held the back line for five consecutive points, including an ace.

With the game now heading into that decisive fifth set, the game seesawed until the Hawks created a cushion as Whitehall made some unforced errors that helped open up a four-point lead at 7-12. The Hawks maintained that cushion, prevailing 15-10 to get the win.

The Hawks also benefitted from the superb play from outside hitter Amirah Moody who had 17 kills.

The Zephyrs were also plagued by service errors, especially in the middle sets where the Hawks took control of the match. Abi-Daher said that their errors were a little high, noting they won’t be able to win sets with the amount of errors they committed against the Hawks.

Abi-Daher said that they’re heading in the right direction, but felt that his squad would prevail against the Hawks.