Good teams want to be tested during the regular season, and there are different ways a team can be challenged.

The Parkland girls volleyball team, ranked second in the state in 4A, has seen its fair share of challenges.

With the front portion of their schedule back-loaded with teams from the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference North division, the Trojans have come out of those games with wins in convincing fashion.

It may not be the best way to prepare a team for better competition, but winning always helps with confidence and experience for the players. And head coach Mike Krause knows there are advantages to those types of games as well as the closer matches.

“I think the North Division allows for younger players opportunities to demonstrate how much they are developing in the season,” said Krause. “Our schedule has allowed the younger players time to get into competition and experience the opportunities to go against other players.

“Overall, I believe it has helped the team demonstrate the need for consistency regardless of the opponent. This group has been working on controlling their side of the net and controlling their game speed.”

Last weekend at the annual Parkland Invitational, Parkland faced another type of challenge, competition. Nine of the 10 teams were state playoff qualifiers last year.

The Trojans went 3-1 in group play, defeating Delaware Valley, Merion Mercy and Mount Olive, and falling to Liberty.

Then after beating Cumberland Valley in the quarterfinals, they fell at the hands of the team ranked just above them in the state rankings, Bishop Shanahan, in the semifinals.

“Getting to the Parkland Invitational semifinals and playing against Bishop Shanahan actually bolstered the team’s confidence and identity,” Krause said. “The tournament had many Division I players that served and hit the ball with a lot of speed and height at the net.

“We learned where our strengths are at that level and areas where we need to develop further for us to be competitive and earn the right to play in the postseason.”

Over his tenure as head coach the Parkland girls volleyball program has been consistently at the top of the league, district, and state. This year is no different.

“I think the season is providing this team an opportunity to develop their own personality,” said Krause. “The past two seasons, we have had the Pennsylvania Gatorade Player of the Year. They experienced a 72 consecutive match win streak. [Monday night’s] win over East Stroudsburg South marked the 120th consecutive regular season victory dating back to 2009.

“It allows the team to learn from the past and find their niche on how they are going to impact the season and represent the players before them. The former teams created the tradition and expectation, the current team learned how to prepare and compete to sustain a strong tradition of Parkland Volleyball.”