One thing seems certain when Bethlehem Catholic and Emmaus meet for the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference at 7 p.m. Thursday at Liberty High School.<\/p>\n
The Golden Hawks and Green Hornets should know what to expect from each other.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s because there are some bonds between the teams.<\/p>\n
Most notable is that Becahi coach Jessica Attieh used to be the head coach at Emmaus before returning to her alma mater last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s kind of a bittersweet moment for us because we know them so well,\u201d Attieh said. \u201cMe and my assistant coach actually coached them in club season, and we\u2019ve coached them since their freshman year. They have every piece of the puzzle. When it works for them, they are very hard to stop. They\u2019ve been playing together for four seasons now, including club and high school season. So, they\u2019re with each other year \u2019round and it\u2019s hard to dominate a team that plays so well together.\u201d<\/p>\n
No. 2 seed Emmaus (17-3) was dominant in a 25-18, 20-25, 25-21, 25-22 win over Freedom in the first EPC semifinal Tuesday night at Northampton High\u2019s Pete Schneider Gym, but Attieh\u2019s top-seeded and unbeaten Golden Hawks (20-0) were just as impressive in a 25-20, 14-25, 25-16, 25-13 win over Parkland in the second semifinal.<\/p>\n
Both teams regrouped from lackluster second sets to finish their matches strong and create a rematch of their Sept. 8 regular-season match won by Becahi in three sets.<\/p>\n
Neither school has won a league title in the current configuration of the EPC, and neither won in the Lehigh Valley Conference either, so it has been a long time since either program hoisted a league championship trophy.<\/p>\n
Becahi came close last year before losing a five-set heartbreaker to Allentown Central Catholic, 20-25, 25-17, 29-27, 22-25, 15-13.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s definitely a redemption year for us,\u201d Attieh said. \u201cWe want it now more than ever, I think. It\u2019s within our grasp. We just have to continue to work hard, execute and persist through any obstacle that faces us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Becahi lost just four sets through the regular season, but had to rebound after dropping the second set to Parkland in the semis.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe exact same thing happened in the semifinals last year against Liberty,\u201d Attieh said. \u201cWe got blown out in the second set, and this brought back memories of that. We came back and blew them out and had a really tight fifth set. We just kind of got locked in and focused and executed the game plan going in the third and fourth sets.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jocelyn Bell led the way for the Hawks with 19 kills.<\/p>\n
A first-team all-EPC all-star selection along with teammate Piper Ruggiero, Bell said the EPC title would be a big moment for the entire program.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want it so bad,\u201d Bell said. \u201cWe really put in the work this season, physically and mentally. I know the girls around me are giving it their all, just as I am. This is more than just getting a win. We all have something we want to prove, and Thursday\u2019s the day to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bell said the second-set sag was about a lot of self-inflicted wounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were making a lot of self errors,\u201d she said. \u201cParkland\u2019s a great team and has a great coaching staff. They really know how to work their girls and adjust to the team on the other side of the net. They played well and we were letting some things slip. We had to reset our own game plan and kind of get back to our own pace.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ruggiero, who had 40 assists, said it\u2019s all about her team\u2019s energy level.<\/p>\n
\u201cParkland\u2019s a big momentum team, so we had to bring back the energy after each point,\u201d she said. \u201cTonight, we lost our momentum in the second set, but volleyball is a game of mistakes, and we had to keep talking to each other after each point and keep lifting each other up. The key to our success had been everybody. Everybody does everything, even if you\u2019re on the bench. Everybody is cheering, everybody is helping everybody. It\u2019s going to be a good match against Emmaus. We\u2019re expecting them to be ready and excited for this match. We will be as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emmaus has faced challenges all season long and figures to be ready for any adversity they encounter against Becahi.<\/p>\n
The team lost two of its best players to injury during the season. Maleya Hinds, an EPC second-team all-star in 2024 and a Division I recruit primed for a big senior year, was lost for the season in September. More recently, junior middle hitter Andraya Flowers went down and is not likely to return.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis team has worked so hard all season to be cohesive,\u201d said second-year Green Hornets coach Jessica Olang. \u201cIt\u2019s sad to see a starter go down. It hurts your heart for the player, but this team has not missed a beat. They\u2019re like, \u2018Who\u2019s up? Who\u2019s the next one in? So, they have worked hard athletically, but also mentally. They have worked hard to be a unit and stay together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Olang credited sophomore Emma Nesfeder for stepping into the lineup and replacing Flowers and senior setter Alyssa Heffner for running the show and keeping everyone where they are supposed to be.<\/p>\n
\u201cEmma is actually a setter but has stepped into the middle and is doing a nice job blocking for us and being a strong part of our offense,\u201d Olang said. \u201cAnd it takes strong leadership from your setter to run the offense, no matter who you\u2019re hitters are, and Alyssa has done a great job of doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Heffner and Amanda Rivera were both first-team all-EPC selections. Heffner had 31 assists and a team-high 13 kills.<\/p>\n
Rivera said losing Hinds and Flowers were tough blows, but the team has been able to stay together.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all come to practice every day, and practice hard, play hard, and stay together,\u201d Rivera said. \u201cWe keep bouncing ideas off each other and learn from each other. When we played Becahi early in the season. When we played Becahi early on in the season, I think we still had a lot to learn and a lot of adjusting to do to each other after Maleya went down. We\u2019ve just progressed so much as a team and as individual players. We\u2019ve improved so much in practice and it games. We grew so much. We\u2019re going to be coming into the final with a strong mindset.\u201d<\/p>\n
Originally Published: October 15, 2025 at 4:16 PM EDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One thing seems certain when Bethlehem Catholic and Emmaus meet for the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference at 7 p.m.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2590,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,305,726,432],"class_list":{"0":"post-2589","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bethlehem","8":"tag-bethlehem","9":"tag-bethlehem-headlines","10":"tag-bethlehem-news","11":"tag-high-school-sports","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-top-stories-tmc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}