The brooms were out for Whitehall’s final regular season boys volleyball game, and now they’ll prepare for the league championship.

They swept Parkland last Friday earning their sixteenth win of the season. It was a spirited match that saw them play perhaps their best game defensively all year.

“We were just all over the place making plays,” said head coach George Cowitch “That’s what we’ve been working on and asking these guys to do, and it was just awesome to watch and to see, not letting the ball drop. Fantastic.”

Cowitch said that they also did a good job limiting unforced errors after the first set. They were consistently making plays, and that forced Parkland to answer, with many of those attempts met with big blocks at the net, notably by Dylan McGinley, Sami Barhoum and Rick Melosky in the third set that helped spark the 26-24 victory to seal the match.

“That was, for us, huge,” said Cowitch. “They’re a good opponent and they’ve gotten better, Parkland as a team, and we had a few breakdowns late, and we just have to knock them out.”

Whitehall had the Trojans on the ropes in the third set, taking a 24-16 advantage. All they needed was just one more point, but Parkland refused to comply, reeling off eight straight points to knot the score, 24-24. But Alex Khouri made sure the comeback ended right there, delivering a kill to win the set and the match. Khouri finished the match with 13 kills to lead the team.

Cowitch said that the mental aspect of the game is something they work on during the offseason.

“You can’t play to not lose; you have to play to win,” said Cowitch.

The Zephs got contributions from a host of players as Joe Herman had 12 kills, while Barhoum had seven, and McGinley struck for six.

One of the most hard-won points came midway though the third set as Aziz Atiyeh made a sprawling dig, one of his 21 throughout the contest. That effort kept the ball alive for a Rick Melosky tip that pushed Whitehall’s lead to 17-11.

Melosky has emerged as an emotional leader on the team. He’s also one of their best servers, registering five aces on the night. That’s something that has developed over time.

“I’ve just been working on it a lot in practice, making sure I get the topspin, and just trying to put it on the floor,” said Melosky.

Melosky said that defeating their rival always stands out among the players.

“It was a big win for us,” said Melosky.

Melosky also believed that their defensive effort opened the door to the victory.

“We played really well, especially on defense,” said Melosky. “We dug a lot of balls. We also got a lot of blocks, and a lot of touches on balls, and that helped us get the win.”

Melosky said that the win serves as a big boost heading into the postseason, and believes they’ll most likely seeing Parkland again in the league playoffs.

“Having a sweep of Parkland is big for us,” said Melosky.

The Zephyrs kicked off the EPC tourney on Monday with a match against Nazareth. They won that marathon five-setter against the Blue Eagles setting up a championship match against Emmaus on Wednesday. In the win, Herman had 23 kills, nine digs and three aces. Khouri had 14 kills, five blocks and two aces, while Barhoum had 14 kills and two digs, and Melosky had 51 assists, three blocks and two aces.