Volleyball Recap: Freedom Takes Loss Despite Strong Performances from Ayden Willman and Joe Braun

It's hard to turn regular season success into postseason wins, a fact Freedom can now relate to. They fell just short of the Emmaus Hornets by a score of 3-2 on Tuesday. The Patriots have struggled against the Hornets recently, as the game was their sixth consecutive lost meeting.

Joe Braun

Assists

05/27/25 vs Emmaus	40
05/22/25 @ Whitehall	30
05/20/25 vs Louis E. Dieruff	25
05/08/25 vs Parkland	46
04/30/25 vs Liberty	34
+ 30 more games

Despite the defeat, Freedom had strong showings from Joe Braun, who had four blocks and three digs, and Ayden Willman, who had 12 kills, seven digs, three blocks, and two aces. Braun has been hot for a while, having also posted 12 or more assists the last 35 times he's played. Another player making a difference was Bailey Fleckenstein, who had nine digs and three aces.

Among those leading the charge was Gabe Dressler, who had nine digs and two aces. That's the most aces he has posted since back in April. Cameron Furniss also deserves some recognition as he had his first block of the season.

Freedom's loss dropped their record down to 19-6. As for Emmaus, the victory was the seventh in a row for them, bringing their record up to 20-1.

After both having extra time off, Freedom and Abington Heights will shake off the rust and duke it out at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday. The Comets will roll in looking for their fourth straight win, something the Patriots surely won't give up without a fight. As for Emmaus, they will square off against Governor Mifflin at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday.