In the final home game for the Warren Central volleyball team, the girls couldn’t seem to overcome the powerful serving from Northwest Rankin losing in four sets to the Cougars.

The Lady Vikes did, however, come out strong edging out a 25-17 victory in the first set, and dropping the final three, 24-15, 25-14, 25-22.

“We were just flat, we weren’t ready,” said Lady Vikes coach Matt Gullett. “We wanted to play a lot better and we did. They gave us a good challenge.”

After great hustle from Kylie McMaster and kills from Taylor Smith and Sydney Stuart lead to the first set win, the Lady Vikes were introduced to the serving strength of Maya Jones from the other side of the net.

Jones had 27 aces coming into Thursday’s game and only added to her total. The heat she brought dug the Lady Vikes into an early 7-0 deficit. If it wasn’t for an error by Northwest Rankin to stop the serve, the deficit might have reached double digits.

Gullett said the biggest difference change in the first two sets was the serving.

“He turned those servers loose and they started hitting the ball a lot harder and it caught us off guard. They started just wailing and wailing,” Gullett said. “We let them get out on us too early. The girls should’ve been ready for it.”

The final set of the match was tied on three different occasions on the 6th, 14th and 18th points. The Lady Vikes controlled the set early with kills from Aquarius Crook, Kayla Mayfield and Carisha London putting the team up 6-3. Serving the ball into the net and not returning balls over the net lead to the tying point in each scenario.

Kylie McMaster continued to sacrifice her body and set up passes well in rallies.

McMaster has been working at setting the ball for the last two years. She usually sets up the high row or the backrow.

“I think we all did really well and hustled. All our bodies hit the floor,” McMaster said. “I believe our serving has gotten extremely better and our overall attacks by Kayla Mayfield, Frida Garcia and Sydney Stuart.”

Mayfield had back-to-back blocks followed by a kill in the third set for three of the Lady Vikes 14 points. Despite the loss, she feels her team did well and went out with a bang.

“I think I did good, but I feel like I could’ve done better as far as getting the ball over,” Mayfield said.