The Emmaus and Parkland girls volleyball teams have been in a lot of competitive matches throughout the years, and the rivals have always shared high and low times against each other.

The Trojans beat Emmaus earlier in the season, 3-1 at Parkland. The Green Hornets returned the favor on their home court, taking care of the rematch 3-1 by scores of 25-21, 17-25, 25-18, 25-22 last Thursday night at Emmaus High School in Eastern Pennsylvania Conference Skyline Division action.

“It was a big win for us,” said Emmaus senior outside hitter Macy Van Den Elzen. “We made some positive adjustments in our match against Northampton and had a good practice Wednesday in preparation for Parkland. They are always well-coached and tough to play even at home.”

The win gave Emmaus (13-4 overall, 12-2 EPC) its second consecutive conference win, which was followed by a 3-2 victory at Nazareth Monday night. In the early-season setback at Parkland (8-5, 8-5) back on September 5, the Green Hornets were in each set competitively but came out on the wrong end. In last week’s match they made some adjustments and used their home crowd.

“We made some lineup changes last week to speed up our offense and get quicker on our defense,” Van Den Elzen said. “I think we did a better job limiting our mistakes as well.”

The speed factor on both sides of the net were evident for Emmaus, which, like Van Den Elzen said, limited mistakes and mental errors that hurt them in the first match.

Every set was a battle for both teams, as is usual when the two teams meet. Neither team had a lead greater than four points in any of the four sets and all it took was a run to break free.

Van Den Elzen finished with a match-high 17 kills, nine digs, three blocks and four aces to lead Emmaus. Jaya Bhagat tallied 10 kills, 10 digs and three aces. Lily Johnson recorded five kills and three blocks and Kassidy Hallman contributed 36 assists and seven digs. Hannah Horvath and Kelsie Baus both came up with double-digit digs, bringing in 12 and 10 respectively.

Emmaus finishes the week and regular season against Central Catholic Thursday before beginning EPC and District 11 playoffs.

“We have a lot of work to do still this week in practice to prepare for Thursday against Central, which will be another tough match,” said Van Den Elzen. “Then we will see who we draw for the EPC First round. We are excited to get postseason started”