Emmaus beat Whitehall 7-0 Saturday to advance to the semifinals of the District 11 Class AAA field hockey playoffs. The win means that the Lady Hornets will play Nazareth Wednesday at Whitehall, with the winner advancing to the finals and capturing a spot in the PIAA playoffs. Nazareth advanced with a 3-1 win over Parkland.

The win was the 16th shutout for Emmaus this season and puts them at 21-0. The Hornets defense has allowed just six goals all season. With players like Meredith Sholder (45 goals), Ashley Moxey (26 goals) and Krissy Mikelson (22 goals) getting a lot of attention, the defense has gone somewhat overlooked, but has been a big part of the team's success. Goalies Tori Laczo and Makheila MacDonald get overlooked even more since they don't get the opportunity to make a lot of saves.

"They always get lost," said coach Sue Butz-Stavin of her defensive players. "They get lost even in the conference. To be quite honest with you, we didn't get that many votes and then you get a team like Central Catholic that put up eight kids and they didn't win a game. I'm not saying that there's not maybe one player on that team that could possibly break in, but our defense never gets looked at. Even Tori [Laczo], we may not give up many shots, so consequently, not many shots, you're not going to have a lot of saves, but you've got to make that contribution to the core of the backfield."

One player who has made a steady defensive contribution has been Kayla Mack. The senior midfielder has one goal and one assist on the season and is known as somewhat of a free spirit on the team.

"She's a highly spirited kid," said Butz-Stavin. "She likes to have fun and enjoy things, so she's kind of low key. But she's great with her one-time passes and has done a good job on the left side of the field. Most of the time, you have your speed on the right wing, so she's the first person to try to cut that speed down."

As a senior, Mack has been there when her team went down in the PIAA semifinals in each of the past two seasons and she's determined to help break that string in her final trip through the postseason.

"I'm putting that in the past and don't think of any negatives," said Mack. "I only think about the positives. We just really want to keep up the tradition and we worked so hard in the summer, waking up early every day and we wanted to make it worth it."

Mack hasn't made a college choice yet, but hopes to continue playing field hockey at the next level.

Emmaus will take on a Nazareth team that is 13-6-1 and lost 5-0 to the Hornets on September 12.

"Nazareth's goalie [Megan Gangewere] a kid that plays the whole circle, so she brings a different question into your attack," said Butz-Stavin. "I think Nazareth overall has a lot of great athletes on their team and we haven't seen them since September, so it's been a long time."