The Emmaus and Pleasant Valley girls lacrosse teams have gotten to know each other well the last three seasons, especially when it comes to postseason play.

The Green Hornets and Bears met for the third straight year in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference championship game last Tuesday, May 14, at Northampton High School’s Al Erdosy Stadium.

Unfortunately for Emmaus, it was the third consecutive defeat at the hands of Pleasant Valley as the top-seeded Bears stayed unbeaten on the year and scored six straight goals to open up the game to hold off the third-seeded Hornets 9-4 for their third straight conference crown.

It was the fourth year in a row that Emmaus (13-7 overall) was playing in the EPC title game after taking down last year’s District 11 3A champion and second-seeded Easton 10-6 back on Friday, May 10.

Hornet head coach Roxann Betz spoke about her team’s recent postseason success and playing good lacrosse at the right time.

“We were extremely proud of the hard work and determination from our team to win the EPC semifinal round,” said Betz. “Making it to the championship is always a goal for our team. We have been playing some of our best lacrosse lately.”

Pleasant Valley (20-0) raced out to a 5-0 lead after the opening quarter and then scored its sixth goal in the second quarter before Emmaus ever got on the scoreboard. It was 6-1 at halftime after junior Abby DiComes finally found the back of the net for her team.

The Hornets then got going a little bit more after intermission as Jordyn Poll scored off an assist by DiComes and Brianna McClain kept the scoring going with a tally on a feed by Melea Weber with 13 seconds to go in the third quarter. Weber then cut her team’s deficit in half with a goal 1:08 into the fourth and Emmaus was down just 8-4.

There were a couple more chances throughout the fourth quarter, including a shot that hit the cross bar, but the Hornets were unable to find the back of the net again.

Alani Shotwell finished with 10 saves in net.

Emmaus earned the two seed in districts and took on third-seeded Easton in the semifinal round this past Monday. The district final is Wednesday at Lehigh University.

“We are excited that we were successful in the EPC tournament,” Betz said. “We did great seven of the eight quarters in the league playoffs. We fell short, but we were happy with the adjustments we made and need to continue with confidence and composure as we face Easton for a third time this season in districts.”