Photo by Jake Przytarski Lakeview’s Sierra Plotz tries to go up for a block during their match against Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg on Thursday. The Lakers lost 3-2.

COTTONWOOD – The Lakeview Lakers entered Thursday night’s home matchup with Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg with an unblemished 3-0 record and did all they could to maintain their undefeated streak to start the season, but fell short in a five-set thriller that went down to the wire in a 15-13 fifth set.

In a trend that would last through most of the contest, the Lakers got off to a slow start in the first set of the match and quickly found themselves down 4-1. Coach Hailey Osland acknowledged the team’s inability to get off to a fast start and believes that it’s something that can be improved as the season progresses.

“I thought we played tough,” said Osland. “We started every set a little bit slow then we battled back so we know we’ve got that fire in us to start the game strong, and that’s our goal to work forward towards.”

The fire that Osland described was evident later on in the set as the Lakers battled back and took an 18-15 lead late. Both teams would go on to trade points all the way to what could’ve been the set-point, but neither team would give an inch. The Lakers threatened to end the set taking a 25-24 lead with the crowd on their feet, but the Fighting Saints held on and ended up taking the lead at 28-27. The Lakers battled to extend the set, but fell short to lose 29-27.

It was a case of deja vu to start the second set with the Fighting Saints once again establishing the momentum early and jumping out to a 5-1 lead. This time, however, the Lakers settled in and began to pull away to take a commanding 18-11 lead late. They would ride that late-set momentum all the way to a 25-18 set win to even the match at one apiece.

The third set mirrored the previous two in that the Lakers were not on their game when play continued and they were quickly facing a 4-0 deficit before a timeout was called to regroup. The timeout was effective, as the Lakers were able to score six of the next eight points to even the set at 6-6. Unfortunately, that would be the only point in the set that the Lakers would be able to catch the Fighting Saints as KMS maintained a lead throughout that ended in their favor 25-21.

With their backs against the wall, it was the Lakers that set the tempo early on in the fourth set and jumped out to a commanding 14-7 lead. The Fighting Saints hung around throughout the set, never trailing by more than six after their early seven point deficit, but couldn’t catch the Lakers as they cruised to a 25-20 set victory to force a fifth and final set.

The Lakers gym was electric to start the fifth and final set with the Lakeview fans hoping to see their squad finish off a remarkable comeback. It was not to be, however, as the Fighting Saints refused to let the game slip away. They would go on to win the fifth set 15-13, and the match 3-2.

Leading the Lakers in aces in Thursday night’s match was LeeAnn Stensrud who finished with four. Stensrud, along with Savannah Rausch were the team leaders in kills with 11 apiece, followed by Harley Orvis who finished with nine. Kaitlin Fischer ended the night with 38 set assists to pace the team.

The Lakers will have a day to regroup from the heartbreaking defeat before getting right back into action with a three-match marathon at the Montevideo tournament beginning with a match against Litchfield. Leading up to the tournament, coach Osland identified some things that can be improved upon before their big tests in Montevideo.

“We have a tournament this weekend in Montevideo, so we need to crispen up our servicing a little bit more and take advantage of those free ball passes,” said Osland.