Parkland senior middle hitter Kasia Burda leaned over with her hands on her head after teammate Gabrielle Nissen’s block was the game winner of the District 11 Class 4A girls volleyball championship against Emmaus, 3-2 (25-12, 23-25, 25-23, 23-25, 15-10) on Oct. 30 at Catasauqua High School.

“A couple weeks ago, Emmaus beat us, and we were really upset about that,” said Burda. “Today, we really wanted it. Emmaus really challenged us, and it just came to the last points.”

The Trojans jumped out to a six-point lead in the fifth set, but the Hornets scored three straight points that prompted a Parkland time-out. That led to a huge point down the line for Burda (17 kills).

“We were mixing up all our shots, aiming deep, and trying to get them out of their system because we could defend their out-of-system swings,” Burda said. “Us going hard swinging was the way to go.”

Although the Trojans’ athleticism prevailed last Thursday night, the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference champion Hornets’ gritty comebacks in Sets 2 and 4 established the deciding Set 5 game.

“We made some lineup changes,” said Emmaus head coach Jessi Olang. “Got our hitters on different blockers and had to reset passing. We really struggled on serve-receive, and our serve-receive was able to reset and we were able to get our offense running.

“We were trying to get our best match ups and our best serving rotation right out the gate (in Set 5), and unfortunately, we missed a few serves and in a 15-point set, there’s very little room for error. We weren’t at our best tonight, but to the girls’ credit, when you can sense that things aren’t running on all cylinders, but you don’t let up, that’s something to be proud of.”

After a dominant first set win by Parkland, Emmaus trailed by as many as seven points in the second set before taking its first lead of the match at 21-20.

Riley Schilling’s kill tied it, 21-21, and the tandem of Chloe Coonradt (32 digs) and Addy Ochoa tied the set for the Trojans again. MJ Bhanji was terrific on the block and brought Parkland within one, but Amanda Rivera’s two points put the set in favor of Emmaus.

“We were attacking where we thought we could attack according to the way they played us last time,” said Parkland head coach Mike Krause. But then they made adjustments, so we had to adjust to their adjustments. What we were doing in the first set was completely different from what we were doing in the third.

“Emmaus is so good that they can do their own runs, and we’ve done runs, and then they’ve answered our runs, so that was a concern if we could control the ball. All those rallies we had, that’s where we’ve really grown. From a coach’s perspective, that’s one of the most rewarding parts for me and my staff. Our staff has done a tremendous job with these kids individually and then putting things together. It was the reward of growth that the application you’re trying to teach is actually being applied.”

Most of the rallies ended in favor of the Trojans.

“Parkland is known to go for every ball, so we’re always hustling and trying to get the ball in play,” said Coonradt. “I think we might have gotten a little excited (in the fourth set). I know the team was a little frustrated, but we brought that frustration into energy for the fifth set. [Coach Krause] kept reminding us that I would always be talking on the court, like, where they’re gonna tip.

“We played them two times so we know their strategy and our best bet was to keep the ball in play and let them make mistakes, so I think we did a better job of that this time.”

Both teams will compete in the PIAA State Girls Volleyball Tournament, scheduled to begin this week.

“To be fair, the conference win was huge for us and it reseeded us for coming into here,” said Olang. “So this match-up would’ve happened in the semifinals if we hadn’t fought and gotten through Beca in the conference finals, so it’s something that we can be really proud of...and earned us a spot in the state tournament.”