Liberty hopes the third time will be the charm when the boys volleyball team takes on Parkland this week in the opening round of the District 11 3A tournament.

The seventh-seeded Hurricanes travel to play second-seeded Parkland on Thursday in the third matchup of the season between the two teams.

Parkland has won both encounters this year, with the latest coming on May 11 in the regular season finale, as the Trojans came away with the win in four games.

Head coach Mike Zile hopes that loss can be a key toward an upset victory this week.

“Parkland was our last regular season match and it’s the most fresh in our minds,” Zile said. “I like the way we played Parkland both times this season. In the most recent match the team did a nice job of staying focused the entire match. When playing a strong team like Parkland the blockers need to stay focused on the match ups so that they are closing blocks and not leaving any open nets. I think we did a nice job with that.”

Zile has been stressing the team’s serve-receive in the downtime since the end of the regular season and hopes it can pay dividends.

“We have been focusing on that the most lately where we have to terminate the ball sooner in the rally,” he said. “In the matches that we are coming up short, it’s usually with the longer rallies and other teams terminating the ball sooner.”

Either way, Parkland has been a staple in the District 11 finals over the history of the tournament and have rarely been a team to fall earlier than expected. Zile knows that, but he also knows that anyone can be beaten on any day.

“I believe deep down that our guys believe it’s possible,” said Zile of an upset. “Based on the results from the season it may not look to the outside as probable, but it’s certainly not impossible. We talk about what we need to do in between matches and at our practices. It just comes down to having some breakthroughs and on any given day the breakthroughs can start to come together and happen.”