Whitehall’s opponent in the finals of the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference Boys Volleyball Championship has been a thorn in their side the last few postseasons.

Well, make that a stinger in their side.

Once again the Green Hornets prevented the Zephyrs from claiming a championship, this time the site was at Allen High School as the two teams collided to see who would win the EPC title. Emmaus emerged victorious, defeating Whitehall in three sets to become the 2018 league champs.

The two teams have faced one another in a league or district championship three consecutive times and are on a collision course for another match in this year’s district finals.

While Emmaus has won all three of those contests, Whitehall showed that this year’s team has the capability of ending that streak.

On the surface it may not appear that way since they got swept by the talented Hornets, but Whitehall was consistently in each set, overcoming some early blips to let undefeated Emmaus know that they are going to hold their ground.

They got off to a rocky start in the first set with the Hornets jumping out to a 12-4 lead.

Head coach George Cowitch attributed some of that to their lack of playoff experience with this young group.

“I thought we played tight in the Emmaus match, big stage for most of the guys, since only Joseph Herman has been in these type of matches. and it showed with 13 kills and hitting .500,” said Cowitch.

They were able to rebound in the second set, getting contributions from everyone on the floor. In that set, Joe Herman was a terror at the net, registering four kills and two blocks, helping to keep Whitehall within striking distance. The game stayed close throughout the set with Whitehall eventually tying it at 16-16 on a Herman block.

But the Hornets seized the next point, and then the two teams traded points, and another tie, until Emmaus closed out the set with a five-point run to win 25-19.

Sami Barhoum also played well at the net in that set, knocking down three kills to help put them in position to win.

“In set two, we really challenged them and they responded, and at 18-18 out of a timeout we gave up three or four points and it just went Emmaus way from there,” said Cowitch. “If we get another chance at them, hopefully our adjustments will score some points.”

In order to advance to the finals, they needed to survive a five-set marathon against Nazareth in the semifinals. The first set went into the 30s as the Blue Eagles outlasted the Zephs 32-30 to take a 1-0 advantage. But Whitehall regrouped and won the next two sets before Nazareth won the fourth set, forcing the tiebreaker.

In that tense set with everything on the line, Whitehall rose to the occasion and won 15-12, putting them into the finals. It was the second time in less than a week that they defeated a pesky Blue Eagles team as they won a tough four-setter on May 14.

In that semifinal win, Joseph Herman registered 23 kills, nine digs and three aces, while Alex Khouri had 14 kills, five blocks, and two aces. Additionally, Sami Barhoum had 14 kills and 12 digs, while Ricky Melosky had 51 assists, three blocks and 2 aces, and Aziz Atiyeh finished the match with 11 digs.

With the district tournament still in progress, Cowitch said that they need to make some changes, especially in how they approach the game mentally. They were able to advance to the semis with a win over Easton, but knows they’ll need to be more assertive the further they go in the tourney.

“As for the Easton match in the District 11 quarters, we played more aggressive than we did against Emmaus,” said Cowitch. “It was also nice to avenge an early season loss to Easton. I wouldn’t go out on a limb and say we played our best volleyball, but we need to do that if we want to win a championship. We need to focus on Parkland first, it’s not like they will be an easy task. I think if we come out and play aggressive, play Whitehall volleyball, we can get another shot at the title match.”

The Zephs did move on to the District 11 finals Tuesday night to once again face Emmaus, which was a 3-0 winner over Nazareth. In the Whitehall game, the Zephs twice trailed in the series to Parkland, falling in game one 25-23 but tying things up in game two, 25-22. Parkland went back ahead with a 25-20 victory but the Zephs tied it with a commanding 25-10 win only to see a 16-14, game five victory.

Joe Herman had 18 kills and 11 digs. Alex Kouri had 14 kills and three blocks. Same Barhoum added 12 kills and 10 digs while Ricky Melosky had 44 assists, five blocks and two aces. Aziz Atiyeh had 13 digs and Hunter Pinkey had six blocks.