The Emmaus girls volleyball team is off to a perfect start to the 2013 season.

The Lady Hornets started 5-0 in conference play and are now 6-0 overall after picking up a meaningful nonleague win Monday, beating Southern Lehigh in five games, 11-25, 25-17, 25-21, 15-25, 15-10.

"This is a great win for us," said Emmaus libero Sydney Pickering. "Southern Lehigh is such a good team. They're ranked in the state. It's awesome to beat them. We really played together as a team well and talked a lot."

After dropping the first game against Southern Lehigh, Emmaus pulled out to a 7-3 lead in the second game and never let the Spartans closer than three points.

The third game went back and forth for a while, but the Hornets got momentum-swinging kills late in the match by three different players in Mackenzie O'Brien, Erin Stanton, Alexandra Traynor and Corrine Justus.

"We have seven starters," Millets said. "At different times during the match you'll see their specialties come out.

"Mackenzie O'Brien, she's just been solid all year. Syd Pickering, our libero. Her growth this year is astounding.

"Corrine, our middle, she has moments of brilliance. Ally (Traynor) has moments. Megan (Forstburg), Erin (Stanton) had some key hits and key blocks too."

In game four, Southern Lehigh went to it's best hitter, Melann Amory. Emmaus led the game 5-2 before the Spartans turned it around.

The Hornets trailed by a couple points early in the fifth game. An O'Brien kill and a block by Rebecca Houghton and Stanton tied the game. Forstburg served an ace to put Emmaus up 8-7.

Emmaus never trailed the rest of game before sealing it at 15-10.

"We pulled it together and we came back and we won," said O'Brien. "Our ultimate goal is to make it to leagues and districts and, obviously, to win. Getting as high in seeding as we can is goign to be really important this year."

Emmaus is on top of the District 11 Class AAA rankings. Just beneath the Hornets looms Parkland, which is also undefeated. The two teams meet next Monday in Orefield.

The Trojans, which are coming off a state runner-up season, graduated some of their top players but haven't missed a beat.

Emmaus, which won the Levesque Tournament at Penncrest and recently defeated Central Catholic, relishes the challenge Parkland brings.

"I'm really looking forward to it," O'Brien said. "I love playing Parkland and all these good teams. It challenges us a lot."