RECAP >> A total of 40 teams started out play at Saturday’s Bobcat Invitational Volleyball Tournament at Northeastern High School.
In the end, however, only one team was left standing hoisting the championship trophy and that was head coach Jeff Elsea’s Emmaus squad.
The Hornets put together an incredible performance that spanned over a 12-hour period as they defeated the state’s No.2 ranked team, Cumberland Valley 2-0 (25-23, 25-22) to win the title.
The championship was the first in program history for Emmaus, which finished runner-up back in 2017 under then head coach Ken Dunkle.
Emmaus had advanced to the finals by sweeping the state’s No.5 ranked team Central York (25-18, 25-19), defeating the host school Northeastern 2-1 (14-16, 18-16, 15-13) and beating rival and fourth-ranked Parkland 2-1 (8-15, 15-13, 15-12) in the opening-round of the playoffs.
In pool play, the Hornets went 3-1 defeating William Tennant 30-21, Red Land 30-13 and Red Lion 30-27. Their lone loss was a 30-21 defeat against a Governor Mifflin team that it had just defeated in a non-league match back on March 23 (3-1).
Members of the team included: Seniors Zach Baus, John Cannone, Logan Dougherty, Lord Henry, Brian Cobb, Klo Knyaw Htoo; juniors Jametric Harris, Cooper Henseler, Cael Kratzer, Kyle Long, Tyler Chu; sophomores Brayden Dang, Lucas Mondin, Jackson Holdin, Colin Holden.
The Emmaus JV team (pictured below) also won the championship of their 24-team tournament. The squad consists of sophomores Brayden Dang, Anyis Hardmon, Jackson Holden, Lucas Mondin and Jude Boyle; freshmen Grayson Answini, Austen Breisch, Josiah Brown, Cael Held, Bilaal Kerim, Christopher Mitchell, Jayden Perez, Hayden Sampson, Sander Houtz and Ben Skekel.
