The Emmaus girls' volleyball team got out to a fast start this season, starting 8-0 in match play.

The fourth-seeded lady Hornets did much of the same last Thursday against fifth-seeded Pottsville in the District 11 girls' volleyball quarterfinal at Emmaus High School. The Lady Hornets never trailed and rolled the Tide for three straight games to take the match and stay alive in the District 11 Class AAA tournament.

"I told the girls to light the court up," said Emmaus head coach Gwen Millets. "We are playing a district match at home, in the new format. I told them to show what Emmaus is all about. They really came out with that big push that I know they can do."

Senior Corrine Justus got the party started with a fierce attack to start game one. Justus continued to contribute with four kills and seven service aces. Emmaus took the lead in the first game and never looked back, winning 25-14.

"Every single practice we talk about those core fundamentals," Millets said. "Defense and serve receiving [along with communication] is what we go over. Obviously throughout the year we had some lapses in communication, but they know if they keep their communication up and play together, nothing can really stop them."

Sophomore Rebecca Houghton helped set the tone early in game two as she got Emmaus on the board first and carried the dominance throughout the match with 29 assists, nine digs and five service aces.

Emmaus took game two by a final score of 25-12. That gave the Hornets all the momentum as the two squads switched sides for the third and final game.

Game three was welcomed by a superb back-and-forth between both teams that ended in a point for Emmaus courtesy of senior Allie Traynor's ferocious swat across the court that was never returned. Traynor finished the evening with 13 kills and six digs.

"We didn't really know what to expect so we still had expectations of playing hard and having a good game against tough competition," said Traynor. "They were still a good team and we had to work for it. They were a good team to go against to get ready for the next round."

After getting out to an 8-0 start, Emmaus took game three, 25-8, to close out the match. That victory advanced the Hornets to the semifinals where they faced top-seeded, undefeated Parkland. (That game was played Tuesday night at Whitehall High School, after Press deadline. See next week's Press for coverage of that match.)

Millets talked about what the girls needed to do to capture a victory against the Trojans in what was their third meeting of 2013.

"We just need to be confident and to apply what we learned as a team," she said. "We have to run on all cylinders. We have to come out and work together as a team and pull together as a team to do what we need to do to beat them."