John Yanek knew he had a special group of players coming into the volleyball season and despite not coming away with any trophies this season, the Pates enjoyed one of their most memorable seasons in recent history.

Freedom’s season officially came to an end last week, losing to Abington Heights in five games (19-25, 25-16, 25-20, 21-25, 21-23) in the opening round of the PIAA 3A tournament.

It was a dose of revenge by the Comets, who got swept by Freedom in the regular season opener, but survived match point three times in the fifth set of last week’s state matchup to win their first state tournament victory in program history.

The end was bittersweet for Yanek, but it didn’t take away from the journey the team enjoyed.

“Well, it was successful,” he said. “Going 17-6 is great. We achieved all but one of our goals. Most guys are playing club, so that will help moving forward.”

This year’s run to the district finals was the first since 2009 and he hopes that can give the program a boost moving forward and help put them on pace with programs like Emmaus, Parkland and Whitehall, who have traditionally dominated District 11 over the past decade.

“Our big losses are Joe Braun, Logan Shupp and Bailey Fleckenstein,” said Yanek. “I have an extremely strong sophomore class. Hopefully, this will revive our program.”