Emmaus and Cumberland Valley played a pivotal second set in their PIAA quarterfinal game and it may have been the undoing of the Hornets. Cumberland Valley won the match in straight sets to eliminate Emmaus and send the Eagles to the semifinals game against Parkland.

There could have been another matchup between Emmaus and Parkland in volleyball, but the Hornets (19-4) fell to Cumberland Valley by scores of 27-25, 35-33, and 25-20. Parkland swept Upper Dublin in its quarterfinal game.

After Cumberland Valley won the first set, the Hornets seemed to shake off the loss well in the second set and were right back at the Eagles in the second set. Junior Jametric Harris looked ready to take over the set and offered up a vicious spike to give Emmaus a 13-10 lead. Eventually, the Eagles found their footing and battled to tie the game at 14.

From there, the momentum was convincingly on the side of Cumberland Valley as it was able to grab the lead and move to a 21-17 edge.

Emmaus was down 22-19 and holding serve when some controversy arose. Luke Mondin’s serve was returned, and, on a volley, Cumberland hit the ball long and out of bounds. The Eagles players and coaches immediately argued that an Emmaus player had tipped the ball and after officials conferred, it was decided that the ball did go off an Emmaus player’s fingertips, giving the point to the Eagles.

The decision only spurred on the Hornets, and they were able to battle all the way back and tie the game at 25-25. They went up 26-25 and had serve, but an attack error gave Cumberland Valley new life with the game tied 26-26. Neither team was able to put the game away and as one team took the lead, the other would rally right back to tie the game and take away serve.

It took a diving play by Cumberland Valley’s Tom Smith to save the Eagles when they were down 33-32. The play extended the rally, and the Eagles were able to tie the game again at 33-33. From there, the Eagles were able to capitalize on the next two serves for a 35-33 win.

“I said to the guys during the set that this was nuts. I had never played in a set that was that high scoring,” said Logan Dougherty, one of Emmaus’ six senior players. “That set took a lot out of us physically and mentally, but I thought we regrouped well and were ready to fight again in the third set.”

Just as they shook off the first set loss, the Hornets did so again after the long second set. Physically they were a little sluggish to start the set but rebounded well and with the score tied at nine, Harris again made his presence felt with another monster kill, giving the lead and the serve back to Emmaus. Dougherty added another kill and Emmaus went up 12-9, but the Eagles broke serve and worked their way back to a 12-12 knot with the Hornets.

Nowhere near giving up, the Hornets moved ahead 16-14 only to see the pesky Eagles retie the game at 16.-16 An ace by Cumberland Valley’s Andrew Duncan put the game at 18-17 in favor of the Eagles and Smith again came up a hero with a kill and a block on consecutive volleys and before Emmaus knew it, the lead had ballooned to 22-17 for Cumberland.

“We knew we were fighting for our lives there and we just had to keep pushing and playing hard,” said Dougherty. “It was going to be a long fight if we were going to win, but we were all in.”

Emmaus had one last run in them and moved to within three before Cumberland Valley was able to get serve and hold it for a 25-20 win in the set and a 3-0 win in the game.

“What I loved about this team is how they always fought back,” said Emmaus head coach Jeff Elsea. “No matter what the score was, or the situation was this season, they were always fighting. Even in that third set tonight, they were ready to do battle as best they could. We were our own demise at times. We didn’t serve well enough on many occasions. When we lost our games, we just didn’t serve aggressively like I wanted them to. The more aggressive we serve, the better we play.”