Both the Bethlehem Catholic and Emmaus girls volleyball teams have experienced \u2014 to paraphrase the old Wide World of Sports theme \u2013 the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat this season.<\/p>\n
The Golden Hawks are 24-1, but that one loss was a stinging defeat to Emmaus in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference finals. Becahi led two sets to none, but ended up losing in five sets.<\/p>\n
The Green Hornets are 21-4 and won a league title for the first time in program history. However, their quest for the school\u2019s first District 11 championship in 30 years came up short thanks to a four-set loss to Parkland in the 4A title match.<\/p>\n
The bottom line for both squads is that they know what they\u2019re capable of when they play well and know the consequences when they don\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Both played played exceptionally well in their PIAA tournament openers earlier this week and are now headed to the quarterfinals in their respective brackets.<\/p>\n
Bethlehem Catholic posted a 3-1 win over District 3 runner-up Middletown by set scores of 25-18 15-25, 25-15 and 25-15 an will now face perennial District 1 power and three-time defending state champ Pope John Paul II (19-2) at 1 p.m. Saturday at Central Bucks South.<\/p>\n
Emmaus defeated District 2 champ Delaware Valley 3-0 (25-22, 25-16 and 25-13) and will also head to Central Bucks South on Saturday for a 3 p.m. battle in the elite eight against District 1 champ Spring-Ford.<\/p>\n
Parkland, meanwhile, couldn\u2019t follow up its district championship with more success in states. The Trojans, who featured just one active senior, ended their season at 18-6 after suffering a 3-1 loss to Bishop Shanahan, District 1\u2019s No. 4 seed. The scores were 18-25, 25-23, 25-20 and 25-21.<\/p>\n
But for Becahi and Emmaus, the beat goes on.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we came out strong and we finished strong and we jut have to clean up the middle,\u201d said Hawks\u2019 coach Jess Attieh.<\/p>\n
There was a postmatch ceremony celebrating 1,000 career digs for junior libero Madeline Ahner. She attained the milestone during districts, but added to her total with 24 digs against Middletown.<\/p>\n
\u201cComing into this game, we talked about this being possibly the last game for the seniors and we were focusing on playing for them,\u201d Ahner said. \u201cWe love our seniors so much and really will be sad when they have to go. Middletown was a very good team. Coming off the high of winning districts, it felt amazing and still had a lot of adrenaline going for us. We just steady and focus on each game. The goal remains winning the state championship. Pope John Paul is a super amazing team, but we are, too. But we also compete against some very good teams and we just have to play our very best.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sophomore Morgan Ostrosky was another catalyst for Becahi with a team-high 14 kills.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe talked about staying together and needing to work together,\u201d Ostrosky said. \u201cWe were making errors and Middletown wanted this match as much as we did. We had to find it within ourselves to bring ourselves together and work together. We all know we have the talent and we can pick each other up. We can be amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Attieh likes the balance of Becahi\u2019s offense.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have outside hitters like Jocelyn [Bell] and Sophia [Bedics] who have a lot of varsity experence under their belt,\u201d she said. \u201cNow we have a young gun in Morgan who is showing out and I think that\u2019s very helpful because now we\u2019re not just relying on he outside. Now we have weapons in the middle and weapsons on the outside and teams have no idea where we\u2019re going.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like Becahi, Emmaus knows it is going to state quarterfinals and the Green Hornets are excited about the opportunity to go where no Emmaus has gone in a long time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was nice for us to win the state opener coming off a five-set loss to Parkland,\u201d Emmaus coach Jessica Orlang said. \u201cWe got our confidence back up. We got the momentum, we got our offense going and there was no turning back. Parkland did a good job of keying in on our tendencies and they shut down some of our hitters like we haven\u2019t seen before. So, we really worked with our offense on getting different shots and being versatile. At this point of the season, these are high-caliber teams, so we have worked on being less predictable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amanda Rivera led her team with 11 kills against Delaware Valley, while Fiona Answini added eight. Alyssa Heffner had 33 assists, while Rivera had 13 digs and Sophia Freemont and Corrine Slivka had 12 digs apiece.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a two-and-a-half hour bus ride to Delaware Valley which wasn\u2019t easy,\u201d Answini, a sophomore, said. \u201cBut we stayed intentional, purposeful and mentally tough throughout it. We knew they weren\u2019t going to just roll over. We had to take it from them. They had a big crowd there, so we had to make sure we focused on ourselves and stayed loud. We just had to play as a team. After losing to Parkland, the next day at practice we decided we were going to use it as fuel. It was disappointing to lose them, but we knew were still going on to states. We just needed to keep moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
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