CENTER VALLEY - At first, it looked as if Pleasant Valley might have spent more time on the road than on the volleyball court in Thursday night's opening round of the District 11 Class 3A playoffs.

After spending approximately 45 minutes on the bus to get to Southern Lehigh High School, an ugly opening first game against the Colonial League champions almost set the stage for an early dismissal.Prior to this year's opening round meeting, the Bears suffered setbacks to the Spartans in the district semifinals the last two years. The conclusion last night stayed the same as the Spartans went on to score a 25-7, 26-24, 25-15 victory and stayed on track on defending its district title.After the Bears scored the first point on a Roxy Miranda serving ace, it was all Spartans for the next 18 straight points. However, after Gesiskie was able to get his Bears in line, it was 7-6 the rest of the way."Some of them were just afraid," Pleasant Valley coach John Gesiskie said. "It was like, 'Afraid of what?' and they didn't know. It's exactly what it was. A lot of the times it was afraid of the unknown. Most of us are scared of the unknown. You shouldn't be scared of the unknown."You need to be able to step forward from it and it affected the first game. Then, they started playing their game because it was like, 'Hey, it's our side of the court.' Just play what you can do and good things will happen if they happen."Good things did happen in the second game.After forcing three ties in the opening half, the Bears took control of the momentum for awhile. The No. 7 seed built up as much as a six-point lead (twice, 22-16 and 23-17) before the Spartans showed why they're ranked in the state in their district class. Th No. 2 seed came from behind to knot the game at 24-24 before taking the last two points to win the game.The third game turned in to being just as competitive as the second one. This one saw seven ties and seven different lead changes throughout. The Bears held the lead four different times (5-4, 7-6, 9-8, 11-10) before the Spartans took grasp of the lead for good after taking a 15-14 lead in what ends up the Bears' final game of the year.It was the way that the Spartans first started the match that helped the Spartans finish off the locals."All year, I preach hit the ball hard," Southern Lehigh coach Don West, Jr. said. "I don't want them tipping. Yes, there is some times for them, but I want them to swing hard. If you make mistakes, that's fine with me. But, they (Pleasant Valley) played with a lot of heart tonight."I knew it would be a harder fought battle. The first game was kind of flukey. We got out to a huge lead, but they continued to fight. It was 18-1 at one point, but it was 7-6 the rest of the way. They're a tough team. They played some great competition this year."Regardless of the way things panned out for his Bears, which see the likes of several seniors (Bridget Lozier (five blocks, five digs, four kills), Kiersten Griesback (five assists), Kallie Walling (nine digs), Miranda (nine digs, four aces), Katie Lenart (five digs)) end their careers in Center Valley."It was interesting for them because they (Southern Lehigh) didn't know what to expect from us," Gesiskie said. "We knew these girls came in here ninth in the state and we're nowhere near quite that. But, I told them to try the best that they can and these girls gave it all they could out on the court."But, they're a good team. I'm happy with the way we played."