A good start wasn’t enough for the Nation Ford Lady Falcons volleyball team as they fell in their home opener to the River Bluff Gators.
Nation Ford lost 3-1 (25-21, 25-27, 17-25, 17-25) to the Gators and are now 4-3 on the season.
“River Bluff is good,” said Nation Ford head coach Craig Brown. “We aren’t going to schedule cupcakes. We are going to schedule teams that push us. We have some continuity stuff to get through. We have a chance to be really good.”
Nation Ford opened the first set going up to start but River Bluff quickly tied the set at three.
From there, the Falcons were able to go up and controlled the set in the early portion. Nation Ford went up 12-6 and then 18-12 before River Bluff called timeout.
The Gators put together a rally coming out of the timeout and tied the set at 20. Nation Ford scored four of the next five to take the opening set.
River Bluff quickly got back into the match in the second set staring 4-0. The Falcons rallied to tie the set at five and then went ahead 8-5, but struggled to pull away.
The Gators tied the set at 14 as the two teams started to go back and forth trading the lead. After being tied at 22, River Bluff was able to score five of the next eight points to win the second set and tie the match at one set apiece.
Again, Nation Ford started strong in the third set, but failed to keep the momentum. The Falcons started 9-5, but the Gators eventually tied the set at 12.
Nation Ford was strong in the corners with Lila Martin and Julia Nzambele, but struggled at the net and with returns at times. River Bluff went up 19-15 as the Falcons called timeout. The Falcons struggled to refocus in the set as River Bluff went on to win the third set and go up 2-1.
Trying to shake off being down 2-1, Nation Ford started strong going up 8-3 in the fourth set. The Falcons struggled to keep momentum once again and it allowed the Gators to comeback and pull within three at 11-8.
River Bluff battled back to tie the set at 14, as Nation Ford struggles with returns continued. The Gators went up 17-15 as the Falcons called a timeout to try and figure out how to regain control.
The initial timeout didn’t help much as River Bluff scored four of the next six points only for Nation Ford to call another timeout down 21-17. The Falcons came out of the second timeout dropping four consecutive points to the Gators to drop the match.
Up next for Nation Ford is their Region 3-5A opener against Northwestern on Tuesday, Sept. 2.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
