Bethlehem Catholic has opened the volleyball season with a perfect 8-0 record, but the Golden Hawks look forward to a week with key matchups to test their superiority in the East Penn Conference.

Head coach Jessica Attieh has been encouraged by the way her returning players have responded.

“I’ve been really pleased with the way we’ve started the season,” Attieh said. “Being undefeated in the EPC is no easy task and we’ve shown that we can fight and compete with strong teams. We lost several key players coming into the season, but the experience returning has helped us handle difficult situations.”

Attieh said the Golden Hawks have brought consistent energy to the court while adjusting to their new lineup.

“The girls have come out with a lot of energy and have done a good job of competing and playing together,” she said.

The schedule gets considerably tougher this week, with Emmaus (5-1) on Thursday and Parkland (8-0) on Saturday providing two of the team’s biggest challenges to date.

“These are the kinds of matches you look forward to as a coach and as a player,” Attieh said. “Emmaus and Parkland are both strong programs, and playing teams like that gives us an opportunity to challenge ourselves and see how we respond against high-level competition.”

The Golden Hawks will also face Northampton on Tuesday as they attempt to maintain their unbeaten start.

Attieh said the three matches should provide a good measuring stick for her team, but she doesn’t want the team to lose sight of the bigger picture.

“They’ll definitely give us some good information about where we are and what we still need to work on, but I don’t think we want to put too much emphasis on any one week,” Attieh said. “Our goal is to focus on our side of the net, continue improving, and be consistent with the things that make us successful.”

Liberty continued their hot start to the season, as they took down Nazareth, Pocono Mountain West and Emmaus last week to improve to 7-1.

The Hurricanes swept Emmaus to hand the Green Hornets their first loss of the season.

They have two matchups this week, starting against rival Freedom on Tuesday and Allen on Thursday.

Freedom (5-4) will look to stay above .500 this week when they take on Whitehall, Liberty and Dieruff.