As he prepares for tonight's opening round of the Lancaster-Lebanon League boys' volleyball tournament, Hempfield coach Mike Vogel finds his team in a familiar role:

"(The kids) are ready to go and ready to get this thing rolling," said Vogel. "We've had some real good practices this week and we're going in on a roll."

The Section 1 champion Knights (12-0 section, 35-2-5 overall) will get things started at 4 p.m. at Ephrata Middle School, where they will face Section 2 fourth-place finisher Conestoga Valley in the first of three matchups in Pool B action.

Section 2 runner-up Cocalico and Section 1 third-place finisher Warwick will join Hempfield and CV in Pool B, while Section 2 champ Lancaster Mennonite, Section 1 runner-up Penn Manor, Section 1 fourth-place Cedar Crest and Section 2 third-place Garden Spot will face off in Pool A action at Penn Manor High School.

The third-place finishers from each pool will face off in a District 3 play-in game on Saturday at Penn Manor. The L-L League semifinals, which feature the top two teams from each pool, and finals will follow Saturday afternoon.

While he and his team are confident, Vogel knows that he can't look too far ahead to the approaching District 3 and PIAA tournaments.

"I want to make it clear that if we don't play well we'll get knocked off," said Vogel. "There are a lot of good teams in our league. Cedar Crest has improved 100 percent. They've really elevated their game. Another team we've always had trouble with is Warwick, because their kids know ours so well. Penn Manor's the same way. They're clearly a very good team.

"As for Lancaster Mennonite, I can't say I really know too much about them, because we haven't seen them play."

The Knights are used to competing this time of year. They've ruled area volleyball in the '90s, racking up seven league titles and three District 3 crowns, in addition to the PIAA state titles they won in 1994, 1996 and 1997.

So the league championships are traditionally viewed by Hempfield as the beginning of the postseason, not the culmination of it.

"The next three weeks we're going to have some real tough matches," Vogel