The Emmaus High School boys volleyball team held an eight-point lead in the opening set and battled perennial state contender Hempfield in every game, but fell 25-23, 25-21, 25-23 last Saturday afternoon in the PIAA Class 3A quarterfinal round at Schuylkill Valley High School.
“We knew Hempfield was going to be a tough match,” said Emmaus head coach Ken Dunkle. “They are a perennial powerhouse. This year they have a huge net presence and coach [Mike] Vogel does a great job making sure they are prepared for a run at states every year. I think we did a great job putting pressure on them at times and trying to keep them out of system, but they were still able to make smart aggressive plays.”
The Green Hornets end their season at 24-4 overall. They advanced to their first state tournament since 2018, winning a game at states along the way.
“It’s always great to see the season’s hard work be rewarded with a birth in states, but getting into the final eight really puts an exclamation point on it for the guys,” Dunkle said. “We were disappointed in not making it all the way, but they worked hard to get where they were.”
Emmaus had a successful 2021 season after missing all of last season. The Green Hornets won the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference title and were runners-up in the District 11 3A tournament.
“I think the boys really grew as a team throughout the season and that really helped us into the post season,” said Dunkle. “We were able to weather some tough challenges in EPCs and come away with gold. We weren’t able to put together as complete a match for the district final, but hats off to Parkland for a great match.”
Emmaus will graduate a large number of seniors, including Nick, Alex and Mike Mkyran, Haydn Child, Chris Patel, Nick Blose, Kyle McKiernan and Gannon DeFrain.
“I’m going to lose a great group of guys to graduation this year,” Dunkle said. “I added the Mkryan triples (Nick, Alex, and Mike) to the roster as seniors this year. While they didn’t get a lot of court time, they worked hard every practice and provided a lot of energy from the sideline during matches. Haydn did a great job this year anchoring the defense, calling out hitting lanes to the hitters, and providing a strong float serve. Chris was my utility guy. He had one of the toughest roles as a serving specialist, but also helped out at Libero and even hit outside for a couple matches.
“Nick and Kyle are great all-around players as evidenced by their spots on the EPC All-Star team. They helped the team out through all six rotations, be it their jump serves, their serve receives, back row attack, or their strong hitting and blocking presence at the net. Gannon did a great job leading our offense this year. Not only did he do a great job setting, but he graciously share the setting role with Ben, which freed Gannon up to be an offensive threat while he was in the front row. They are an amazing group of young men and they are going to leave a huge void to fill next year.”
Even with a large exodus of talent, Dunkle is excited for what he has coming back next year to make another run in the postseason.
“Even though we are going to lose five starters, I’m really excited about next year,” said Dunkle. “We will have two seniors in Ben and Noah Parker leading the team. Both were critical to our success this year. We also have a lot of young talent returning on the varsity squad. Players like freshman Jametric Harris, and a great class of JV kids matriculating to varsity next year. Even though next year will be a bit of a rebuilding year, I still expect us to be right in the thick of things.”