Postseason picture becoming clearer
Parkland earns top seed in EPC, District 11 tournaments
The EPC boys volleyball tournament is set to begin on Tuesday with the quarterfinals. The semis will follow on Thursday with the championship game on May 17.
Meanwhile, next week will be business as usual for non-EPC teams that do not have a league tournament to play in as they tune up for districts, which begin later in the month.
Thursday night, Parkland (14-0 overall, 12-0 EPC) handled Emmaus (15-1, 11-1) in straight sets to seal the deal to be the top seed in both the league and district tournaments. Freedom (10-8, 8-4) defeated Liberty (10-5, 8-4), needing five sets. The Hurricanes took a 2-0 lead, including an epic 33-31 win in the second set, before Freedom fought back and won the next three — 25-23, 25-19, 15-11 — to drop Liberty to the No. 6 spot in the EPC and boost the Hurricanes up to the No. 4 spot.
Adam Mittl had 39 kills and 17 digs, while Cristian Matos handed out 55 assists with 11 digs. Matt Gonzalez collected 24 digs, while Elden Campbell had 11 kills and two aces on the night for the Patriots.
The win means that Freedom will get a quarterfinal-round home game, hosting Whitehall (12-6, 8-4) on Tuesday while Liberty (10-5, 8-4) will have to travel to Nazareth (17-3, 10-2) to take on the No. 3 Blue Eagles.
Emmaus suffered its first loss of the season to the Trojans but secures the No. 2 spot in both league and district playoffs. With the top seed, Parkland will host Pocono Mountain East (10-7, 5-7), while Emmaus hosts Dieruff (10-8, 6-6).
For districts, the current pecking order in 3A is Parkland, Emmaus, Nazareth, Liberty, Whitehall, Freedom, and Dieruff based on ranking points.
In 2A, Southern Lehigh (13-2) has the top seed as the Spartans play three nondistrict games to stay game ready. Pocono Mountain East will finish second and Bethlehem Catholic (4-13) and Notre DameGreen Pond (1-14) will round out the field since all four of the 2A schools in District 11 make the postseason.
Districts get underway May 25 and in 2A, Southern Lehigh will host Notre Dame-Green Pond and PM East will host Bethlehem Catholic in the semifinals.
Parkland will be defending its EPC championship from last season and will look for its second district championship in three years after falling to Northampton last season in the district finals.