Emmaus advanced through the first round of the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference girls volleyball tournament Saturday with a win over Pleasant Valley.

The No. 3 seed Hornets consistently went to their three top hitters to bear the No. 6 seed Bears 25-27, 25-29 and 25-21.

Emmaus' Mackenzie O'Brien (15 kills), Megan Forstburg (nine kills) and Erin Stanton (nine kills) did most of the damage.

"They can put the ball just about anywhere they want," said Pleasant Valley head coach John Gisiskie, whose team won the past four Mountain Valley Conerence titles before the league merger. " They know what they're going to do, but the defense doesn't know what they're going to do. They're great players."

The Bears (11-5) stayed in every game, but the strong Hornet hitters closed it out every time.

Emmmaus got out to an early 8-point lead in the first game, 17-9 after a Stanton kill. The Bears closed the gap to five before losing by eight.

The second game saw the Bears stay within three points until the Hornets ran off six straight to take an 18-10 lead. They had it down to 22-18 late in the game, but Hornet freshman Adelina Rivera-Woodward pounded home the final kill to put her team ahead by two games.

The third game saw the Bears come even closer to taking a late lead. A Bridget Lozier kill got Pleasant Valley within two points (21-19). Another Lozier kill made it 24-19 before Emmaus finished the match on the next point.

"We were a little off but we'll bring it together for Tuesday," said O'Brien. "We didn't play bad, we just need to tune up some things."

The Hornets moved on to Tuesday's league semifinals, where they faced Bethlehem Catholic. (The game was played after Press deadlines.) A win against the Hawks would likely earn the Hornets a third game against Parkland, the state's top-ranked team.

Emmaus is the only team to win a game over Parkland this season and the players would like nothing more than to face the Trojans in the postseason.

"We just need to quicken up our offense and tighten out coverage," said Forstburg. "The key goal for us to beat Parkland is to start out strong early."

The Hornets could be peaking at just the right time.

"I think we're playing really well toward the end of the season," said Forstburg. "We played our best game of the year against Central on Wednesday."

Emmaus setter Rebecca Houghton recorded 38 assists an 10 digs in Saturday's game against Pleasant Valley. Sydney Pickering and O'Brien had 10 digs each. Forstburg led the way with 16 digs.