It’s a new season for teams that qualify for the postseason and that journey began this week for Liberty’s volleyball team. The Hurricanes (12-4) closed out the year winning their last four matches, but now face the real battles of the year with the East Penn Conference tournament in play this week.

Liberty hosted Nazareth (15-5) in Tuesday’s quarterfinals with the winner advancing to Thursday’s semifinals against top-seeded Parkland.

Nazareth got the best of the Hurricanes on April 11, winning in five games, but head coach Mike Zile hopes the Liberty can reverse that loss in this second meeting.

“I am looking forward to seeing how we match up the second time around,” said Zile. “The first match, and the matches after (Koller Classic, Emmaus, and Exeter, Southern Lehigh), gave us areas to focus on with serve, serve receive and team defense. We have definitely made strides since then where I think it will be a different match.”

Outside of gearing up for Nazareth, the EPC tournament also gives teams some more reps under their belts in pressure situations before districts.

Zile knows you only get so many of those opportunities during the regular season and getting to go through a practice run in the league tournament is a bonus.

“The tournament helps us prepare for districts by setting up more consistent match situations,” he said. “We get to play against bigger blocks, better hitters and better team defenses. During the regular season there are some matches sprinkled in where it’s more about serve and serve receive with less net play involved. We expect the postseason to be a grind since all of the teams will play physical and will play hard for every point. EPC’s will help us with that.”

Freedom (11-7) fell short of the league tournament due to a tiebreaker with Northampton. The K-Kids beat the Pates in five games at the end of April to give them the deciding factor. It was a tough end of season run for Freedom, as they lost to Northampton, Emmaus and Liberty.

They battled in all those matches, but ultimately came up short. Head coach John Yanek still feels his team can make a run if they put it all together.

“I believe we are one of the top three teams when we’re healthy and all attending,” said Yanek. “We have 15 or more practices to get ready for districts. I truly believe we can be in the championship.”