Freedom came close, but couldn’t land the final knockout punch in last week’s District 11 3A volleyball championship.

The Patriots had top-seeded Emmaus on the ropes, but eventually fell in five games (19-25, 28-26, 25-19, 22-25, 13-15).

It was the first championship for Emmaus since 2018 and kept the Hornets (20-1) undefeated in local play.

The loss for Freedom (17-5) stung, but advancing to this week’s PIAA tournament helps soothe the pain of falling short of a district championship.

“We played the best overall in that match,” said head coach John Yanek. “We truly had them, I believe. We just made some inopportune mistakes. Going 17-5 any year is great.”

Freedom now has a chance to make another run when the state tournament gets underway on Tuesday when they travel to Abington Heights for a 6 p.m. showdown against the District 2 champions.

The Pates have experience with Abington Heights (15-4) from earlier this season, sweeping them in three games in the season opener for both teams back in March.

Yanek knows that’s a ling time ago and hitting the road in the state tournament is always a challenge, especially against district champion.

“We are ready to advance,” said Yanek. “We defeated them 3-0 earlier this year, but this is a new season. We won’t have our good defensive specialist, so hopefully a player can step up.”

Should Freedom win on Tuesday, they’ll move on to Saturday’s quarterfinal round against Unionville (17-4) or undefeated Cumberland Valley (18-0).