In a matchup of unbeaten teams in a single elimination tournament, something had to give. One team’s season would come to an end after just its first defeat of the season.

Unfortunately for the Parkland High School girls volleyball team, it ended up on the wrong end as the Trojans fell just short of playing for a state championship when they dropped a five-set thriller Tuesday night to Unionville in the semifinal round of the state tournament at Norristown High School.

Scores of the match were 25-20, 24-26, 22-25, 25-22, 15-11 in favor of the Longhorns (25-0 overall). The Trojans ended their season at 24-1 overall and won both the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference and District 11 titles along the way of winning two state tournament matches. It’s the third time in the last four years that Parkland has advanced to the semifinal round, but lost. It’s still a great accomplishment for the storied program under head coach Mike Krause.

Alli Reimer finished with a match-high 22 kills. Maggie Smith recorded 44 assists. Ava Best also contributed double-digit kills with 11 and added two assists.

In the quarterfinal round this past Saturday, Parkland took down Wilson West Lawn in straight sets by scores of 29-27, 25-19, 25-22. The Trojans had a team hitting percentage of .437, the highest ever in a playoff match. Reimer led the way with a program-record for kills in three sets with 31. She also had a .500 hit percentage. Madi Siggins had 12 kills and hit .556. Smith also recorded a program record in three sets with 54 assists and added two aces and nine digs. Izzy Fekula finished with 19 digs.

The Trojans will graduate seven seniors, including Reimer, Siggins, Smith, Best, Cat Neagle, Meghan Haines and Hailey Schimmer.