Parkland girls volleyball coach Mike Krause and Bethlehem Catholic mentor Jess Attieh have experienced great success.
Krause entered Thursday night’s District 11 4A title match with 11 league, 13 District 11, and three state championships on his resume.
Attieh encountered success as a player at Bethlehem Catholic a decade ago. She was a key part of three District 11 championship teams and a state title squad as a senior in 2014.
But both Krause and Attieh said winning gold medals never gets old, and both savored coaching their teams to championships last week at Catasauqua High School.
Parkland went five sets to beat Eastern Pennsylvania Conference champion Emmaus — 25-12, 23-25, 25-23, 23-25, 15-10 — after Bethlehem Catholic handed Colonial League champ and previously unbeaten Southern Lehigh a four-set defeat in the 3A championship match by scores of 25-18, 27-29, 25-18, 25-17.
It was a night in which both third seeds won, and both No. 1 seeds fell, but with tradition-rich programs like Parkland and Becahi, the talent and determination are always there, regardless of seedings.
For Parkland, which lost to Liberty in five sets in last year’s 4A title match, the championship was especially one to remember because the Trojans featured just two seniors, and only one was playing because the other — Sarah Paugh — has been out with an injury.
“It’s probably one of the most gratifying district championships we’ve had,” Krause said. “There were a lot of different situations tonight where we could have folded. Emmaus was hitting the ball all over the place and making it tough. But our kids believed in themselves, and did what they had to do and came through.”
Middle hitter Kasia Burda, the one senior on the floor for Parkland, said: “This took lots of hard work. We didn’t give up. We were so hungry. Emmaus beat us two or three weeks ago, and that was the first time they beat us in 17 games, and we were really mad at that. We wanted to show up, just play and beat them.”
Burda did her part with 17 kills. Freshman setter Alex Serina was superb in her first district final with 41 assists, 13 digs, five kills and three aces. Sophomore Chloe Coonradt had 32 digs, and Zoey Leach and Addy Ochoa added 19 and 11 digs, respectively.
“It was definitely hard in the beginning being the only senior,” Burda said. “There was a lot of weight on my shoulders, but the underclassmen really stepped up today. They have been stepping it up and making it so much easier for me. I think that they all want it for me and Sarah. I think we’re going to go far.”
The PIAA playoffs begin Tuesday, and Parkland (18-5) will host Bishop Shanahan, the No. 4 entry out of District 1. That match will begin at 6 p.m. Emmaus (20-4) will be in action at the same time, traveling to District 2 champ Delaware Valley.
All teams need to win three matches to get to the state finals Nov. 15 at Cumberland Valley High School in Mechanicsburg.
“I think we showed we can go far,” Burda said. “We’ve had a lot of ups and downs this year, but this is just the beginning. We have so much left to go.”
Emmaus is hoping it still can make a run. The Green Hornets couldn’t sustain the momentum they had after rallying from two sets down to beat Becahi in the EPC finals two weeks earlier.
“We know Parkland is always going to be a tough matchup, and we needed to be rolling on all cylinders, and we certainly weren’t,” Emmaus coach Jessica Orland said. “You can’t always control your own performance. Sometimes you just have an off night. But to their credit, they never, ever let up. They kept fighting the whole way through. Parkland just passed better than we did. They passed better than I’ve seen them in a long time. They ran an effective offense. We were right there, but just couldn’t get over the hump. I just told them we’ve still got a season left. We have another match to play and we have nothing to hang our heads about/ We’ve had a great season and it’s over yet.”
Bethlehem Catholic’s girls volleyball team poses for a team photo after beating Southern Lehigh for the District 11 3A championship at Catasauqua High School. (David Mika, Jr./Contributed photo)
Gold for the Golden Hawks
Attieh said that her team came back strong after its heartbreaking five-set loss to Emmaus in the EPC title game.
“They definitely worked hard in practice after conference play to get back to this point,” Attieh said. “We started to practice more on the mental part of the game because that’s where I feel we lost it [against Emmaus]. We lost to Southern Lehigh in the second set this time, but honestly, I wasn’t upset we lost that set because our players kept fighting. Southern Lehigh just had better shots than we did, and they got that second set. But that was fine with me because we kept playing smart and playing aggressively. And that told me we weren’t going to give up. They still wanted it. We had that positive confirmation that we were going to fight for this.”
Becahi took care of the final two sets and got the medal presentation and postgame celebration they thought they were going to have two weeks earlier.
Senior Theresa Ruhl said it was the first time she had won a championship.
“It was so amazing,” she said. “We worked all season for this, and when we got the final point, it felt amazing.”
And the key to victory?
“We have great chemistry and work so well together on and off the court,” Ruhl said. “We’re all friends. That loss we had in the league finals really pushed us in districts. We knew this is where we really had to push for it. We couldn’t lose another game. I think that loss pushed us forward and made us a better team. I think we have the talent and chemistry to go far in states.”
Jocelyn Bell led Becahi (23-1) with 18 kills. Ruhl had seven kills and Sophia Bedics had 14 kills and went over 1,000 in her career.
Becahi will open the 3A state tournament Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. at home against District 3 runner-up Middletown (18-1).