The Saint Jo Lady Panthers lost their first game of the season falling to 3A Valley View on Tuesday.
The Lady Panthers lost 3-1 against the Lady Eagles in a match where each set could have gone either way.
It was a raucous environment led by the Saint Jo student section which was unusual for such an early season game. It gave the match a much bigger feeling than just the third game of the season, especially since the crowd was not as big as the Lady Panthers will eventually play in front of this season.
Saint Jo came into the match winning both of its games the first week of the season without dropping a set, a great start for the mostly freshman populated team.
The Lady Panthers got their first tough test on Tuesday playing against a bigger school.
It was back and forth in the first set until mid-way through when Saint Jo opened up with an 18-12 lead.
The Lady Eagles got back into it to cut the lead down to 21-19, but the Lady Panthers closed the set off well to win 25-22.
The second set saw Saint Jo have a rough start as the team fell behind 8-2. The Lady Panthers came storming back to retake the lead 11-9 before the teams were tied up at 15-15.
The two teams exchanged four-point swings to tie the score back up at 21-21. It was point-for-point the rest of the way, with Valley View pulling out the narrow win 25-23 to tie the match up at 1-1.
The third set saw Saint Jo again fall behind early on 11-4. Playing from behind, the Lady Panthers cut the lead as close to two, down 16-14.
Down 23-17, it looked like the Lady Eagles had an easy path to winning the third set. Saint Jo came all the way back to make Valley View earn it and ultimately fell just a few points short.
Serving down 24-23, the Lady Panthers committed a service violation to give the Lady Eagles the final point to win the set 25-23 and the lead.
The fourth set again saw Saint Jo fall behind, down 15-10 before storming back to tie the set up at 16-16. Valley View got another lead and extended it to 22-18.
The Lady Panthers made one final storming comeback attempt to cut it to one point down 24-23, but the Lady Eagles closed the set to win 25-23 and the match 3-1.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.