Even though it was their ninth straight Lehigh Valley Conference Championship, the winning never gets old for veteran coach Sue Butz-Stavin, who is in her 37th season as the head coach of the Emmaus field hockey team.

The latest triumph was a 4-0 win over Liberty, a team that handed Emmaus their only loss of the regular season. The win stretched the new Emmaus win streak to 12 games, putting them at 19-1 on the season.

"It's always nice to win and I'm always happy for the girls, because they work so hard," said Butz-Stavin, who refused to characterize the win as revenge. "They're a good team and they beat us in that first game, so we knew just how tough they could be."

While the veteran coach wasn't looking for revenge, some of her players had taken the earlier loss tough and were glad to have another shot at Liberty in the postseason.

"We wanted to come out here 10 times stronger," said Krissy Mikelson. "We knew they were going to come out here with the same intensity as us, so we had to show it to them that we're still number one and that we belong here and that we deserve to win."

The earlier loss to Liberty was a 1-0 overtime defeat that came on a grass field, which made things tougher for Emmaus, who feature very precise passing schemes and ball maneuvering. Nobody was allowing that to be an excuse either then or now, but some did admit that the games played on grass are very different.

"We're not going to blame it on the grass, because we play on grass and we play on turf," said Mikelson.

In last week's championship match, Kassidy Green and Alex Nader scored first-half goals to put Emmaus up 2-0 at the half. Green scored her second goal of the game and Teresa Carotenuto scored her 31st of the season in the second half to help seal the game for the Hornets.

"This is the most exhilarating feeling, especially all coming together as a team. It's one of the best moments I'll ever have," said Carotenuto on the LVC title. She was quick to give credit to her coach. "There are so many good things to say about her. She's a phenomenal coach and mentor and she teaches so many things that no one else could ever teach us."

Next on the to-do list for Emmaus is the District 11 tournament that has Emmaus seeded at the top of the 11-team field. Their first match comes up on Saturday against the winner of the Pleasant Valley and Nazareth game that will be played this week. The way the brackets are put together, it's possible that Emmaus could get another crack at Liberty in the district finals, which will be played on November 3 at a neutral site.

"You just have to be prepared to play well," said Butz-Stavin of any future games. "There are so many scenarios, you just have to be ready and we will keep working hard and we'll certainly be ready for that first game and then go on from there."