The Eastern Greene High School volleyball team lost three matches at the Loogootee Invitational Saturday.

The Lady Thunderbirds lost to Loogootee 17-25, 11-25; Northeast Dubois 25-16, 25-19; and White River Valley 14-25, 25-18, 17-15.

Every now and then, teams take a step back and we did exactly that," said Eastern Greene coach Gina Ingram, whose Lady T-Birds dropped to 4-9. "We have such potential and young people that have talent and today, it just didn't click for us.

"In the first match against Loogootee, we started off so very solid and if it hadn't been for missed serves, it is hard telling who would have won game one. We get beat 17-25 and missed four serves. We were in the hunt and that is one of our goals at all times.

"However, game two was a different story. We just couldn't seem get things rolling our way. I felt we worked aggressively, we just couldn't catch a break. Game two ended with Loogootee soundly winning 11-25, that stung. We were a little flat due partly due to the loss of game one, we talked about keeping our heads up that it was a good game and we were in it. That just didn't spill over."

Alyssa Hauser and Whitney Richardson each had four kills against Loogootee. Joni Crowe dished out seven assists and Rikki McCann had four. Samantha Reed had three blocks and McCann added six digs.

"Offensively, we struggled some today and that hurts against teams that are hard and strong swingers such as Loogootee," said Ingram. "They have a very solid program and we played with them for half the match.... that really should show us what we can do in any situation."

Ingram said they looked better on offense against Northeast Dubois.

"But still came out with the loss,," said Ingram. "We only had three balls hit the floor in this match.

"Most of our problem came from hitting errors. We had some trouble finding the floor within the court. We were working, but the ball just wouldn't fall. Dubois started the morning a little flat too, but definitely picked up their game. They have a short serve receive pattern and we struggled to push them back with the deeper serve today. We just didn't find that happy medium -- it was either a short zone or right at them in this match."

The Lady T-Birds missed just two serves against the Lady Jeeps.

"We were lead in this match offensively by Whitney Richardson with six kills," said Ingram. "That is low match count for Whit in the kill area. She couldn't seem to get in the zone today. But you have to give her credit, she kept working hard trying to find it.

"Whitney also led us defensively with 12 digs, which as I just stated illustrates her head being in the game knowing that offensively she was struggling but she made up for it defensively."

This was the third match of the year between EGHS and White River Valley, with a split in the first two matches.

"We knew it would be a battle," said Ingram. "Game one, we came out aggressive and intent on winning and we did soundly 25-14. We looked like we have for the four previous matches before today -- solid.

"McCann served very well in the first game and got us off to a 10-2 lead. We had no dropped balls in game one and we won that game, that shows our hustle and intensity. In game two, WRV came out swinging and we didn't serve or pass well at all. We put numerous balls tight for our setters to try to work with, that is difficult and out of character for us. We ended up losing game two 18-25 forcing game three."

Ingram said the started and serve in game three, but miss and that WRV came out strong and determined.

"We seemed to spot them 10 points before we decided that we wanted the game more than they did," said Ingram. "When we got to Jenna (Crowe) serving, we were down and she served points 6-9 and we were back in the game but still down.

"Senior Alyssa Hauser stepped to the service line to serve from 10-14 to create a very tight back and forth game. The game ended with an aggressive swing by Tayler Kail and Caitlyn Frye going hard to the corner to try to dig up a well place shot with the final score of 15-17 in favor of WRV."

Ingram went on to analyze their performance against WRV.

"With this match, the first game was how we played -- hard -- and the end of game three is how we played -- hard," she said. "The things in the middle just got in our way and we have to find our way to eliminate them.

"I told the girls that is the way to finish a game -- with it all on the floor and the excitement and tension so tight that it is hard to watch the game but you just have to watch."

The Lady Thunderbirds will begin a busy week with a match Tuesday at Mitchell.

"We will work on moving forward," said Ingram. "We have a tough week coming up with three matches and a tournament for JV and varsity on Saturday

"No time to dwell, just time to put it behind us and move on."

Eastern Greene Statistics

Loogootee Invitational

Vs. Loogootee

Samantha Reed: 1 kills, 3 blocks.

Caitlyn Frye: 3 kills, 7 digs.

Rikki McCann: 6 assist, 6 digs, 4 points.

Alyssa Hauser: 2 digs, 4 kills, 1 point.

Whitney Richardson: 4 kills, 4 digs, 2 points.

Nikki Butler: 1 kill, 1 dig.

Joni Crowe: 7 assists, 4 points.

Amber Polley: 3 digs.

Jenna Crowe: 1 dig.

Vs. Northeast Dubois

Whitney Richardson: 6 kills, 12 digs, 2 points.

Samantha Reed: 1 dig and 1 block.

Caitlyn Frye: 5 kills, 7 digs, 3 points.

Rikki McCann: 2 kills, 6 assists, 5 digs, 1 point.

Alyssa Hauser: 2 kills, 2 blocks, 1 pt, 6 digs.

Joni Crowe: 7 assist, 1 point, 2 digs.

Nikki Butler: 3 kills, 1 assists, 1 dig.

Amber Polley: 1 point, 8 digs.

Jenna Crowe: 3 assist, 2 points.

Vs. White River Valley

Samantha Reed: 7 kills, 2 blocks, 2 digs.

Caitlyn Frye: 1 kill, 8 digs.

Rikki McCann: 6 digs, 13 points, 5 assists.

Alyssa Hauser: 8 digs, 2 kills, 6 points.

Whitney Richardson: 16 digs, 2 kills.

Nikki Butler: 2 kills, 1 dig.

Amber Polley: 2 digs, 3 points, 2 aces.

Jenna Crowe: 6 digs, 1 assist.