If there’s one thing the Whitehall Zephyrs know for certain, it’s that they’re a volleyball team that will be reckoned with this spring.

In their season opener on March 17, the Zephyrs took Emmaus, the number four team in the state, to five sets, won by the Hornets (23-25, 25-12, 22-25, 25-23, 15-10).

“We really should’ve beaten them in four,” said Whitehall coach George Cowitch, “and then coming [to Liberty] they’re gonna play up because they’re playing us, and once our guys understand that, they have to put it in a different gear. We have it. They just have to understand they have to do that.”

The Zephyrs won their match against the Hurricanes, 3-0, (25-19, 25-19, 26-24) on March 19, but the ‘Canes challenged, especially in the second set.

Liberty took advantage of Whitehall errors to tie the match after the Zephyrs led by as much as four points.

“We started off very slow and played slow the whole game, but we’re gonna fix that,” said Whitehall outside hitter Jayden Haik (18 kills, 6 digs).

Haik’s point took the lead back, Omari Ratliff’s (7 kills, 2 blocks) block extended the lead, and Kole Moyer (39 assists, 8 digs, 2 aces) finished off the set after a nice save and back set by Derrick James to Andrew Sodl (20 digs, 5 assists).

James is a freshman who’s stepping in for injured senior opposite hitter Cole Richards.

“He’s a young guy, and this is a fast game for him, so once he adjusts, he’s a really good player,” said Coach Cowitch. “Once we get him going and everybody else going, we’re gonna be really good. We just weren’t good tonight. We’re setting them up for success, and if you’re doing your own thing, it’s not gonna work.”

The Zephyrs won a rally early in the third set to go ahead, 5-3, but Liberty’s Mason Strawn’s kill tied the set.

Whitehall responded with Ratliff’s kill to the middle and Haik’s point to the back row.

Liberty crept back into the match, tying at 22-22, and scoring twice more.

“We didn’t want to go to a fourth set. If it’s the last point, everybody’s gonna try 10 times harder to get the ball,” said Sodl. “We thought we were gonna blow by Liberty, and clearly, we didn’t.”

On the last point, Liberty dropped a pass but not before tying the set one more time.

“We passed pretty well, we serve received pretty well, but we could be better on blocking, and we’ve got to read our hitters,” Sodl said.

Next week, the Zephyrs will host Freedom in an expected showdown on April 1.

“Coming off a rough loss against Freedom in the semifinals (last year), we’re building off of that to be a way better team, and we’re taking practices seriously,” said Haik. “We want to get that win back.”