Throughout the Parkland High School girls volleyball team’s undefeated, 16-0 mark in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference portion of the regular season, the Trojans were rarely tested by conference foes, losing just one set in the best-of-five matches, a 3-1 win over Liberty on Sept. 20. That included both matches against Central Catholic, which were both straight set victories for Parkland, 2-0 on Sept. 9, in a tournament, and then 3-0 on Oct. 9 in a regular season matchup.

But the Trojans (19-0 overall) were tested to the max in their most recent match with those Vikettes as the teams went toe-to-toe in the EPC championship match last Thursday night at Whitehall High School. Top-seeded Parkland held on in five sets to beat third-seeded Central by scores of 20-25, 25-19, 23-25, 25-19, 15-5. The win marks Parkland’s fourth consecutive conference title.

Trojan head coach Mike Krause said that his team practices like it is getting tested in five-set matches every day, and he believes it was ready for the situation, even with a raucous crowd and environment.

“We train like that in practice,” said Krause. “There are times when we’re down five, we’re down seven, you’ve got to keep on playing. It’s still volleyball. The nice thing is there’s no clock in volleyball. So, you’ve got to continue to make plays.

“Central was such a formidable opponent, but we knew that there were some things that we missed in our decision-making and our positioning. We were moving so quickly without finesse, and we were overreacting to a lot, because the crowd was incredible.”

The Trojans were stunned in the opening set as the Vikettes (16-3), who were behind 6-1 early, rallied and were firing on all cylinders and playing with a lot of passion, backed by their crowd, looking to pull off the upset. Trailing 15-12, Parkland did not want to go down 2-0, and rallied from behind to take the second set.

The Trojans then were in front 18-14 in the third set, but had a couple of errors that allowed Central back into it and to eventually take a late lead (24-23) and secure the win to come to within just one win to take the match. Parkland had to rally once again, as they erased an 11-8 hole in the fourth set to eventually tie the score at 14-14, but EPC MVP Alli Reimer, Genda Avdijaj and Ava Best helped lead the attack and give their team a 23-18 advantage which they would finish off to tie the match and send to a deciding fifth set.

The Trojans showed their might and championship pedigree by ending the night on a 9-0 run to take the match.

Maggie Smith had an all-around night as the setter, finishing with 50 assists, 17 digs and eight kills. Avdijaj tallied 10 kills, Best notched nine kills and Madi Siggins added eight kills. Izzy Fekula recorded a team-best 39 digs.

“We always talk about how we are a family and everyone plays as one,” said Smith. “We all love this game. When we were down, it was, ‘Who wants it more? Who’s willing to fight even more?’ Honestly, we wanted it. We really showed that. We dropped two sets, but we stuck together as a team, and that’s ultimately what gave us the win.”

Parkland earned the number one seed in this week’s District 11 4A tournament and will play in the quarterfinal round on Thursday night against the winner of the eight-nine matchup between Pocono Mountain West and Freedom.