RECAP >> The night didn’t start well for the Emmaus boys volleyball team on Tuesday night in their home match against Freedom and quite frankly, it didn’t get any better as the night grew long.
In fact, things got only worse for head coach Ken Dunkle’s squad.
Playing without two of its top players to start the match due to a coach’s decision and also missing a third, the Hornets fell into a 0-2 hole against an inspired Freedom squad and suffered their first loss of the season at home as they fell to the Patriots 3-1 (25-18, 25-23, 17-25, 26-24).
Not only did the Hornets drop their second league match of the season and fall to 9-2 in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference, now tied with Freedom, but the loss may have come at costly price.
Late in Set 3, senior outside hitter Stephen Reynolds, who along with Ethan Parvel sat for the first two sets and saw limited action the rest of the way, fell hard to the floor with an apparent knee injury and was helped off the court. Reynolds, the team leader in kills (90) and second in digs (64), didn’t return to action and was scheduled for an MRI on Wednesday night.
Without its two big hitters for most of the night, along with sophomore outside hitter Nick Blose who was away on a class trip, it made for an uphill battle all night for the Hornets.
“Last night was hopefully a good learning opportunity for the guys on the value of working as a team,” said Dunkle, Emmaus’ fifth-year coach. ” We have a lot of talent on the team, but unless everyone is committed to the same goals and committed to putting the needs of the team before their own, our success will be limited.”
“Freedom came in hungry for the win. They have been putting in the work. They did a great job covering each other and supporting each other through the match. Their varsity guys cheered loudly for the JV during their match and JV was just as loud and invested in the varsity match.”
“Hopefully it was a valuable lesson for us. Our strength needs to be as a team, not as individuals.”
Freedom won the first two sets 25-18 and 25-23 and took a 2-0 lead in the match before Emmaus rallied to win Set 3 25-17. The Patriots led for most of the fourth set and wound up winning 26-24 to clinch the match and its second win against the Hornets this season (Freedom defeated Emmaus 27-25 at the Bobcat Invitational back on March 30).
Brad Turocy and David Barnes each had a team-high 10 kills to lead the Pates, who improved to 9-2 on the season and are within the top four teams positioned for the upcoming EPC playoffs. Defensively, Dan Ramirez had 11 digs and Thales Maciel dished out a team-best 15 assists.
For Emmaus, senior Owen Kennedy led the Hornets with a game-high 13 kills and nine digs. Parvel wound up with nine kills and seven digs, classmate Bryce Diehl had seven kills and three digs and junior Noah Szankovics had six kills and three digs. Defensively, senior Harrison Dottery led with 21 digs, while sophomore Gannon DeFrain had 17 digs and 39 assists.
Next up for the Hornets will be a key match-up on Monday at home as they host Liberty at 6 p.m. The two teams battled in the season-opener with Emmaus prevailing in five sets 3-2.
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Freedom 25-25-17-26
Emmaus 18-23-25-24
EPC Standings (Top 4 qualify for playoffs) – Whitehall 10-0, Parkland 8-1, Freedom 9-2, EMMAUS 9-2, Liberty 7-3, Northampton 5-5, Nazareth 5-5, Easton 4-6, Becahi 4-6, PME 2-7, Allen 1-9, Dieruff 1-9, PMW 0-10
PHOTOS — Robert Thompson
