YORK SPRINGS — James Buchanan and Bermudian Springs have played four girls volleyball matches this year and have been toe-to-toe all the way.

But the Rockets won the biggest matchup yet on Monday night on the Eagles’ home court.

In a District 3 Class 3A semifinal, James Buchanan rallied for a 3-2 win over Bermudian Springs, taking a 15-13 nailbiting win in Game 5. The Rockets (17-3), the No. 3 seed, will play No. 1 seed Trinity (17-2) for the district championship on Thursday at a site and time to be determined.

The champion will earn a berth in the PIAA tournament. Trinity defeated Berks Catholic 3-1 in the other semifinal Monday.

“That was a great team we just beat,” Rockets coach Erica Piper said. “Our goal all year was to get to the district championship. Now we have a chance to make history.”

JB got off to a scorching start in the final set, zipping to a 7-0 lead on the serves of Aubrey Trei. The Eagles fought back, but it was 14-9 in the Rockets’ favor needing just one point to win — until a 4-0 run by Bermudian.

But on the next point, Brynleigh McCracken set up Shelby  Crider for the winning kill and Crider did not miss.

In those four matches vs. the Eagles, Bermudian won the first two, 3-1 and 3-2. But they met in the SCAC quarterfinals and Buchanan won 3-2.

On Monday, the Eagles jumped out to a 2-0 lead with 25-20 and 25-13 victories. But the Rockets turned it around, taking the next two, 25-21 and 25-17 to set up the final game.

“We had 12 kills and 16 errors in the first two sets,” Piper said. “We started passing in serve receive and that allowed us to get our hitters going and put Bermudian on their heels. The great thing about this team is they never give up. We dug ourselves a big hole, but we said in the huddle before the third set let’s just win one set and see what happens.”

At the net for JB, Crider led the way with 19 kills, followed closely by Kendyl Stoner (17) and Lexi Martin (15). Martin also put up 6 blocks and Kamdyn Saunders had 2.

McCracken stacked up 36 assists, while Aamiyah McCullough contributed 10. McCullough had 3 aces and McCracken added 2. Leaders in digs were Trei (19), Stoner (14), McCullough (12), Crider (9) and McCracken (7).

Piper said, “These girls have put in so much work to get to this point, and once we won that third set, you could feel the momentum turning. We had a great student section and fan support, and we kept chipping away a point at a time.”