Playing inside the Emmaus High School gym for volleyball can be a challenge for any road team that comes in. It is smaller than most gyms with low ceilings that make hitting and reaction time difficult.

The Parkland girls volleyball team did not seem to mind Tuesday as the Trojans won in straight sets 3-0 in an Eastern Pennsylvania Conference match.

“I think the most important part of getting a win at Emmaus is handling the gym,” said head coach Mike Krause. “The low ceiling challenges the team to have to adapt to a variety of situations from unpredictable rebounds from the ceiling in that gym. The ceiling is quite low for volleyball and plays off the ceiling could impact point differentials that determine the outcome. The girls did a great job of handling the challenges presented by that gym.”

Scores of the match were 25-18, 25-13, 25-23. The Trojans (10-0, 10-0) won a close third set where a victory in that one for the Green Hornets (11-2, 9-2) may have sparked momentum for a team that is in second place in the league standings just behind Parkland.

“Emmaus always plays hard,” Krause said. “They did a good job of keeping the ball in play. They were a defensive oriented team. They challenge your offense to keep the ball in play. We are still developing diversity in how and where we attack the ball on the court. We were challenged at times with the growing pains of developing the offense with the risk of having some hitting errors. We were able to maintain a positive ratio allowing us to secure the win.”

Ava Adamson finished with 29 kills, four aces and 13 digs. She had an all-around performance that led her team to victory.

“It is interesting she had such a great day with her hitting and her defense,” said Krause. “The Monday practice did not go so well for her. She maintained a positive attitude and took advantage of the ‘new day, new opportunity’ philosophy and recognized scoring areas Emmaus provided. She talks a lot with Maggie to work on the type and location of sets that work well for her when receiving serves and working out of transition from offense to defense. Her and Maggie had a real good tempo allowing Ava to work on her shots against Emmaus’ defense.”

Elena Pursell recorded 13 kills and two blocks. Madi Siggins tallied nine kills and Maggie Smith contributed 45 assists.

Parkland finishes off its week with another tough conference road matchup at Central Catholic.

“I would like us to improve on our off-speed defense,” Krause said. “We did not respond and recognize off-tempo attacks well enough to make the defensive plays. The girls recognize that is an area we will work on at practice. I think our passing and defense against the regular tempo attacks looked good. We have a few areas we need to continue to develop consistency. Our serve was very good and we had a lot of bright spots offensively.

“I think our team approach in preparation has been very sharp. I hope we can continue to grow in the manner we have improved over the last few weeks. This is a fun group that works hard. They are still working hard in the weight room. We will soon be tapering our lifting. They then will feel fresher and more explosive.”