HAYFORK – The Etna Lady Lions opened their volleyball season with a long and winding trip to Hayfork to face the always tough Lady Timberjacks. Early in the match it appeared that Etna was well on its way to beating Hayfork for the second straight season opener.

Etna won the first two sets 25-19, and 25-18. They were leading in set three, but allowed the Lady Timberjacks to come back and win 26-24. Hayfork went on to win set four convincingly, 25-14, and set five 15-11.

What hurt the talent laden Lady Lions was a large number of unforced errors—out serves, double hits, and problems with serve-receive.

“25 out serves for the match were way too many. We need to improve on our serve –receive and our serving,” said Etna Coach Kayla Nadig. “Once they got into the regular play they were doing pretty well. They were covering pretty well. It was just serve-receive and serving.”

Nadig also said that there were some positives. Claire Pynes hit well, Paige Finley had “some awesome blocks one right after the other,” Annaleisa Nadig served well, and Hillary Hampton set pretty well.

Pynes led Etna with 10 kills, five blocks and 27 digs. Paige Finley recorded six kills, six blocks, and six aces. Sarah Loogman had seven kills, two blocks, and 16 digs. Nadig had eight aces, and 15 digs. Hampton had 11 assists, and Britt March had 15 digs.

Etna (0-1) travels to Lost River, Oregon on Tuesday, September 2 to take on the Lady Pirates (0-0).