The Whitehall Zephyrs placed second in the District XI Class 3A Boys Volleyball Tournament after falling to Emmaus in the district final, 3-0 (21-25, 16-25, 23-25), on May 26 at Catasauqua High School.

Always in the mix for a championship, Whitehall, Emmaus, and Parkland traded wins and losses throughout the season.

“I think that’s how the league was,” said Whitehall coach George Cowitch. “We, as coaches who’ve been around long enough, knew that, and you had to be better this night. That’s what it really comes down to, and we were better than them two weeks ago, and they got the best of us tonight.”

Early in the first set, the Zephyrs had some catching up to do to the Hornets, breaking through on a point by opposite hitter Cole Richards to tie, and points from middle hitter Omari Ratliff and outside hitter Jayden Haik for one-point leads.

Emmaus grabbed the lead back, and Grayson Answini’s kill made the score, 23-21, from which Whitehall couldn’t recover.

The Zephyrs suffered from two miscommunications to start the second set, and the Hornets took advantage by finding open spots on Whitehall’s side of the court.

The Zephyrs tried to work their way back into the set but were unable to do so.

Whitehall scored four straight points toward the end of the third set, trailing, 20-22.

Elias Kamhia’s tip gave the Zephyrs hope at 22-23, but the Hornets pulled out the win.

“I’m a little upset because I thought we really had our guys prepared and ready to go, and at some point in time, they’ve got to go and follow the game plan,” said Cowitch. “We did against Parkland. I don’t feel like we did tonight. We’ve taken three teams in our history to championship games and won. We’ve won them, and for some reason, we just can’t get over that hump. It takes a special player sometimes with that, and just them believing a little bit more maybe. I don’t know. I’m sick of the consolation of, ‘Hey, great job, we’re here.’ You know, you come here to win. You don’t come here to lose. That’s my job to get them refocused for Abington Heights next Tuesday.”

The top two teams in District XI advance to the state tournament next week when Whitehall will travel to Abington Heights in District 2, and Emmaus will host a team from District 3.

“We’ll bounce back because that’s what we do, and that’s my job,” Cowitch said. “We’ll have Abington Heights on Tuesday. We’ll take care of them and get to the quarters.”