The last month has been a good one for the Emmaus High School boys volleyball team. The Hornets (19-1 overall, 14-1 EPC) have won 14 straight matches since their lone loss to Whitehall on April 9. They have defeated nine straight Eastern Pennsylvania Conference opponents, including Nazareth in their last league match.

“I’m hoping the Nazareth match was an important one for us,” said head coach Ken Dunkle. “They pushed us hard in the third set. We started to slip into playing conservatively as the score tightened up toward the end of the set. We talked about remaining aggressive and trusting in the team to be able to pick us up if we make a mistake while trying to make an aggressive play.

“We made some mistakes with jump serve and hitting errors, but we were able to side out and eventually win the set 32-30. I’m hoping that lesson serves us well as we head into the postseason.”

The most recent match victory came Friday in a nonconference match at Hazleton, one which Emmaus won in four sets.

“Hazleton is still growing their program, so it was a good opportunity to continue to fine tune the starting lineup, but to also give the non-starters some time out on the court,” Dunkle said. “They work really hard all season pushing the starters in practice, cheering, and being ready to jump into a match at a moment’s notice, so it was nice to be able to give them court time.”

Dunkle has enjoyed seeing his team’s success and he’s even more happy because of how hard they’ve worked to get to this point.

“I’ve been really happy with how the team has come together,” said Dunkle. “It’s been kind of a weird season. We have had a couple weeks with four and five matches during the week so practice time has been somewhat less than normal seasons. We have had to make a lot of adjustments during matches without getting a lot of practice reps in. They have been doing a good job taking it all in stride.”

Emmaus has one more regular season match with Parkland and then has its sights set on the postseason.

“I think the biggest thing I will be looking for is them having confidence in each other,” Dunkle said. “Knowing that none of them have to carry the team on their backs. They just need to work hard in their role. I think these guys have a lot of potential and have worked really hard. Add to it the lost season last year, and I’m just really excited that there is a post season for them to play in.”

Dunkle has seen contributions from several members of his team, so singling out just a few is hard to do, and that’s a good thing for any coach.

“The whole squad has really been doing a great job,” said Dunkle. “It’s hard to pick out one or two players. Kyle [McKiernan] has been a force all season but Nick [Blose] has really made some great adjustments in the back half of the season that have made him more efficient at scoring for us as well. Gannon [DeFrain] and Ben [Maskiel] are running a pretty well-balanced offense and contributing with their own offense on the right side.

“Hadyn [Child] and Chris [Patel] have been doing an amazing job defensively and putting pressure on the other teams with their serving. Noah [Parker] and Jametric [Harris] are doing a good job getting up to speed at the middle hitter position. That’s really the fun of a team sport when you have a talented team like this, watching everyone excel at their role and coming together in concert.”