Freedom’s ride through the volleyball season continues to live, as the Patriots survived a five game nail-biter against Whitehall last week to win 3-2 and advance to this week’s District 11 3A championship.

The Patriots held off a Whitehall comeback after winning the first two games, to hold them off in five games and set up a showdown against top-seeded Emmaus on Tuesday at Catasauqua.

The Green Hornets (20-1) are undefeated in local play and took care of Parkland in four games in the semifinal round, but got all they could handle in a five game win over Freedom back on April 28.

It was the first time a District 11 team took Emmaus the distance during the regular season and head coach John Yanek hopes his group can play a complete game to knock off the vaunted Hornets.

“We need to play almost a perfect match,” said Yanek on what is team needs to do in order to knock off the favored Hornets. “They are extremely deep. I mean we have nothing to lose. The pressure is on them.”

Freedom (17-4) should certainly have a boost of confidence in their step after beating Whitehall, a team they lost to earlier in the season and Yanek knows momentum can carry this team time of the year.

“It was uplifting,” he said. “We were up 2-0 and I thought we had it at that point and I think so did the kids. Looking at both sides, I truly believe we wanted it more.”

The Pates are looking for their first district title since 2009.

Both Emmaus and Freedom qualified for the PIAA tournament by advancing to the district championship, as that gets underway on June 3.

Bethlehem Catholic also advanced to the 2A championship on Tuesday night against top-seeded Southern Lehigh, defeating Lincoln Leadership 3-1 in the semifinals.

The Hawks are 3-17 on the season, but have a chance at a title if they can knock off the Spartans.

It’ll be a tall task as Southern Lehigh swept Becahi earlier in the season.