Pleasant Valley’s hope to end a District 11 playoff drought came up short on Thursday night as Southern Lehigh handed it a 25-27, 25-20, 25-23, 25-16 setback.

“It was a match we had the possibility to win,” said veteran Bears’ coach John Gesiskie. “It’s different than playing Parkland, who is the No. 2 team in the state, or Liberty, who is the No. 3 team in the state, against those teams you are realistically just trying to hang in and play with them a little bit. “Southern Lehigh is a really good team as well, but they aren’t at the Parkland/Liberty level.

“We felt we had the opportunity - and believed we had the ability if we played our best - to take home the win tonight.”

The Bears showed that ability and potential early, capturing the first game.

“We played with a lot of confidence in that opening game,” Gesiskie said. “It was back-and-forth the whole way. But we found a way to finish it out.”

Pleasant Valley wasn’t able to build on the early momentum it created, however.

“It’s one of those things as a coach, where you see it in the eyes of your players,” said Gesiskie about his team’s failure to capitalize in the next three games, “It was like ... we should be winning this, but we’re getting behind. We should be doing this, but we’re not.

“You could just see the frustration in their eyes. They knew they could be winning, But then you start to lose focus in what you’re doing, and you’re a step behind and everything just starts to snowball.”

The loss ended the Bears season at 19-10-1 overall.

PLAYOFF DROUGHT ... The last time the Bears reached the District 11 semifinals was nine years ago. They did get a district win during that span, defeating Stroudsburg in an opening-round game in 2018.

LAST HURRAH … It was the final match for six Bears’ seniors - Maria Saitta (DS, L), Kristen Ferris (DS, L), Nora Jones (OPP), Emma Bergstresser (MB), Jackie James (OH, S) and Sarah Ballek (MH). “They have grown so much, as most of them started as freshmen and sophomores for us,” Gesiskie said. “We had no seniors on the team the previous two seasons - the last time they saw seniors was their freshmen year. So they were forced to be the program’s leaders at a very young age, and did a great job of handling that role.”

NEXT … The second-seeded Spartans advance to the semifinals on Tuesday, where they will face Liberty.