On Sept. 6, the FHN volleyball team played one of their rivals, FHC, in a close and intense match.

“I think, all in all, we played hard. Their team definitely had some lucky shots but so did we,” Junior Elise Struetz said. “Central didn’t overpower us; we lost because of our own simple mistakes. We had some serving and service receive errors where we really needed the points, and that hurt our momentum. I think a major factor in our loss was the holes we put ourselves in. We would let Central go on a five- or six-point run, and it was hard focus to fight back after such a big deficit. We fought hard against them and we are going to learn from last night and hopefully beat them when we play them next.”

In the first game, the team ended up falling to Central 25-21. FHN was determined to come back in the second game, but lost 26-24.

“It was a really close game,” freshman Emily Hood said. “We could have won that game, we just need to learn how to start the game off strong, and we have to finish strong. Other than that, we played hard and as a team, which is one of our goals for the season.”

The team is currently 2-3, with wins against Pattonville and Parkway South. Their next game is at home against Timberland on Sept. 8. They also have a tournament coming up in Brentwood on Sept. 10.

“To get over a loss in any sport- and not just volleyball- the team has to keep looking forward positively to gain back any momentum they may have lost,” sophomore Sarah Zimmerman said. “Instead of focusing on what went wrong in the game, we need to focus on how to improve in the next match and ensure everyone on the team stays enthusiastic and continues to communicate.”