Hempfield, Conestoga Valley will square off for L-L League volleyball gold after semifinal wins
May 11-It will be a rematch 18 years in the making.
The last time Conestoga Valley's boys volleyball team went to a Lancaster-Lebanon League championship match, the Buckskins fell to Hempfield ... in 2008.
CV coach Hunter Davis was 8 years old.
Yeah, it's been a hot minute since the Bucks have played for L-L gold. On Thursday, undefeated CV will get that rematch against undefeated Hempfield. They took different paths to league semifinal victories Monday night.
CV, the outright Section 2 champ, had to pull plenty of teeth - and overcome the loss of one of the top setters in the league - with a hard-fought 3-1 win over Section 1 runner-up Ephrata. Those set scores were 31-29, 25-21, 16-25, 28-26, as CV survived a real nail-biter against the never-say-die Mountaineers.
In the nightcap, host Hempfield, the outright Section 1 champ, flexed its muscles on the way to a 3-0 victory over Section 2 runner-up Manheim Central. Set scores were 25-13, 25-21, 25-15, as the Black Knights denied the Barons a fourth straight trip to the L-L finals.
Manheim Central won titles in 2023 and 2024 before falling to Cedar Crest last spring.
As for Thursday's championship showdown - set for 7 p.m. at Ephrata Middle School - Hempfield (14-0 overall) will be making its 31st trip to a league final, while CV (17-0) will be going back for the first time since 2008. The Knights already own a league-best 24 crowns; a win over CV would give Hempfield a cool 25 championships.
Hempfield hasn't bagged an L-L title since 2021.
"Great numbers," Hempfield libero Ethan Ashba said. "That kind of blows my mind. It's been a big motivator, especially at practice. Hopefully we can use this win as a stepping stone to keep pushing ourselves forward."
BUCKS FEND OFF MOUNTS
Fans in Landisville knew they were in for an exciting match when the first set took 60 points to decide. CV survived that one 31-29, getting four late kills from Jordan Brubaker and surviving Ephrata's two set points.
Down 2-0, Ephrata kicked it into gear in the third, blasting off to a 10-1 lead. T.J. Horning had a late ace and a late kill to help the Mounts pull within 2-1.
The fourth set was another marathon. It took CV three match points to finally win it. Ephrata also had a set point but couldn't slam the door.
"Every point mattered, and we just tried to get focused on the next point," CV's Micah Sauder said. "Playing against a Section 1 team, we felt like we needed to prove ourselves. I thought we showed what we can do when we play up to our capabilities."
CV played the final three sets without ace setter Charlie Krcmar. All tied up at 27-27 in the first set, Krcmar took an awkward spill near mid-court, and he needed helped off the court with an apparent lower right leg injury.
"When your guy who has been setting all year, and who has been ripping top-spins goes down, yeah, everyone got kind of nervous," said Davis, CV's second-year skipper. "But they responded. I told them that we've been working all season for this, and we weren't going down without a fight. They felt the pressure, but they responded at a very high level."
Krcmar spent the rest of the match with his leg propped up, and with multiple ice bags on his lower right leg area. His status for Thursday's title match is unknown.
Sauder, who got some spot time at setter throughout the season, came in for Krcmar and ended up doing a great job. He set up 33 assists and served up a pair of aces for the Bucks, who got 14 booming kills and three blocks from Andy Bonhomme and 13 digs from Colson Erb in the back.
"There were a lot of things happening all at once," Sauder said. "But I knew I had to step it up, and I knew the team was there to support me. We all got calm and we all got settled down."
And the Bucks delivered.
Malachi Knowles had 12 kills and six blocks and Brayden Fries teed up 30 assists for the Mounts, who will continue on in the District 3 Class 3A playoffs next week. They certainly gave the Bucks all they could handle, especially in the first and final sets.
"Almost winning the first and almost winning the fourth doesn't win you the match, unfortunately," said Ephrata coach Bob Witwer, who guided the Mounts to the L-L playoffs for the first time since 2016. He's a CV grad, by the way.
"But what a really good year," Witwer said. "I love these guys to death. They're everything you want out of a team. They came out here and they performed. We had a good idea about what we wanted to do. We wanted to make it tough on them, and I thought we did that. But (CV) dug down and they stuck it out."
KNIGHTS BEAT BARONS
While CV used a ton of energy to hold off Ephrata, Hempfield never trailed and set the pace throughout in its win over Manheim Central, as two longtime L-L heavyweights squared off.
Now, the Knights will go for their 25th league gold.
"I know it would mean a lot to them," Hempfield coach Kenny Eiser said. "And getting this one was great because last year we didn't get to play in the L-L's. And then we went to districts and we lost in the first round. So they got a playoff win here, and hopefully this one gets us started."
Hempfield dominated up front against Manheim Central, which dipped to 11-5, and was denied a fourth straight Section 2 crown, when CV dethroned them this spring.
George Agadis led the way with 18 kills and four aces, and front-row pals Chase Crawford, Spencer Troyer, Cam Crawford (three blocks) and Mason Koehler took turns unleashing kills off of feeds from Marcel Boyreau, who had 36 assists.
Ashba came up with 18 digs in the back to spark the defense, and Hempfield did, well, Hempfield things.
"We executed as a group," Eiser noted, "and that's great. That's what you want."
"That's who we thought they could be," Manheim Central coach Craig Dietrich said about the Knights. "They definitely played like a champion. They didn't have many weaknesses, especially offensively."
Caleb Groff had 10 kills and six digs and Gavin Longenecker had 19 assists for the Barons, who will now try and defend Class 2A district and PIAA championships.
X: @JeffReinhart77
MORE L-L LEAGUE VOLLEYBALL COVERAGE
------
Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.
This story was originally published May 11, 2026 at 11:09 PM.