EAST LAKE — Seminole started its season by winning five of six matches. But Warhawks coach Dexter Rogers was curious to see how his team would play against a quality opponent in front of a hostile crowd.
Tuesday night against East Lake, he got his answer.
The Warhawks clawed their way to an 18-25, 25-22, 25-19, 20-25, 16-14 win over the Eagles.
“We have not been battle tested,” Rogers said. “I wanted to see how they would play in an environment like this. We played well at times but at other times we lost concentration.”
From the beginning it was hard to tell which team would take control. East Lake jumped on Seminole (6-1) in the first game and held a 22-12 lead. But six straight points by the Warhawks made the score much closer and it was a sign of things to come.
Seminole was its own worst enemy in the second game. The Warhawks had 10 service errors but still managed led 22-20 late. Then they rattled off five straight points to win the second game. The final point came on an ace.
The third game was mostly all Warhawks. They led 14-12 before scoring the 11 of the next 13 points behind the net play of Samantha Schlesman, Kona Peterson and Amanda Mitchell.
The fourth game was tied 11 times before the Eagles put it away. The last tie came at 19-19, then East Lake (6-3) scored six of the final seven points thanks mainly to the net play of Rachel Cornatzer.
In the deciding game, Seminole led most of the way but East Lake scraped back to tie it at 14. The final two points were scored by a kill from Ashley Hughes and an ace by Alex Falcon.
“We’ve got to be a lot more consistent in how we play,” Rogers said. “We’ve been playing well and we played well against a good Palm Harbor team and lost. But if we’re going to get better we need to keep our focus throughout the match.”