Emmaus picked up a moral victory against Parkland, but it didn't lead the Hornets to a real victory over their rivals in last week's Lehigh Valley Conference volleyball finals.

The moral victory came in the third set when the Hornets handed Parkland their first lost set of the season. Unfortunately, Parkland won three other sets to take a 3-1 victory over Emmaus and win its fourth straight LVC Championship.

The Hornets came out swinging, but got no closer than 7-4 in the first set. Parkland won the next four points to take a commanding lead and the two teams battled from there, but Emmaus wound up dropping the set 25-18.

Set number two saw the two teams tied six times, but again Parkland would always rally to pull ahead. The final tie came at 24-24 and Parkland won the next two volleys to take the set and a commanding 2-0 lead.

"Momentum-wise, it would have been great for us to win that second set," said Emmaus coach Gwen Millets. "In that second set, we started to play much better, so we had good things going late in that second set and that just carried over to the third set. Unfortunately, we just didn't see that in the fourth set."

Emmaus looked to turn the tables in the third set and played much cleaner, with less unforced errors. The Hornets turned a 7-4 deficit into a 12-7 lead. Emmaus built its lead partly on the strong serves of Megan Forstburg, who had five kills and two aces in the match. Parkland didn't make it easy, but Emmaus was able to take a 25-21 win, which meant that for the first time since the season started, the Lady Trojans had lost a set.

The momentum seemed strong for Emmaus, but it may have also woken up Parkland, which showed no mercy in the fourth set and didn't even allow Emmaus to work its way into a tie with Parkland on the way to a 25-14 win, sealing the victory for the defending champion Trojans.

"It was so much better today [than the first time Emmaus played Parkland], emotionally, the girls were very excited to be in the LVC Finals," said Millets. "The tone at our practice wasn't all about the hype, it was more focused and determined. It didn't matter who was on the other side, it was just about coming out on top."

Emmaus' Alexandra Traynor led all players with 14 kills and three blocks in the match.

"We still had a fantastic regular season and won two really good tournaments and I can't complain about the effort that the girls gave us this season," said Millets.