HUDSON — River Falls volleyball got off to a slow start in the rivalry matchup against Hudson, dropping the first two sets. The Wildcats kicked into gear later on, but it was not enough in a 3-1 loss Thursday.

The matchup was for the conference lead and likely the outright conference title as both teams entered the match undefeated in Big Rivers Conference action with just one week to play. Hudson had beaten River Falls 2-0 in an early season tournament, but both teams have had a lot of time to improve since.

The Raiders came out hot, going on an 8-1 run to take a 12-4 lead. The rest of the set was back-and-forth, but down eight they could not afford back-and-forth, losing 25-16. River Falls again fell behind 11-4 in set two, which was stretched to 19-9 before River Falls Head Coach Sara Kealy called a timeout. During the timeout, Kealy said the team needed to improve the serve receive and the blockers needed to get bodies in front of hitters. Hudson extended the lead to 23-11, but the Wildcats went on a 7-0 run led by the serve of Brooke Dusek. A serve into the net ended the run, and the Raiders closed the set with a huge swing through a couple of blockers that ricocheted out of bounds, 25-19.

River Falls rode the momentum the team built during the set two rally. They began set three with a 6-2 lead, staving off every rally Hudson looked to mount. Hudson eventually took a 16-15 lead, but the Wildcat block started to make an impact, and the attack got creative. Junior middle blocker Raegan Skifter put a couple of balls to the floor over the middle, and Dusek finished the set off with a big-time cross-court hit that found the floor, 25-23.

The Wildcats clawed to a 14-9 lead in set four, but the Raiders did what they do best, not going away. A handful of serve receive mistakes brought Hudson to a 15-15 tie. The squads threw haymaker after haymaker, with River Falls taking a 23-22 lead on a Charlie Cegielski ace that the Hudson team thought was destined for beyond the out-of-bounds line. The Raiders ended the match with three consecutive points, capped by an ace of their own to send the home crowd into jubilation.

“The entire match wasn’t our best. We had conversations as a team afterwards about that. Our serve receive really struggled, and blocking, which has been something that I feel like we’ve leaned on this year, it’s been an asset of ours, was very inconsistent,” Kealy said. “Hudson, they’re so talented that I feel like all the errors we were making were just so uncharacteristic of us. It really rattled the girls because they’re not used to that.”

There is a major chance the two teams meet up again in the postseason, and Kealy said she is glad a light was shone on the areas the Wildcats need to patch up in the short time before the playoffs.

Kealy said most matches include a player or two who struggle, but Hudson really caused a chunk of the Wildcats to lose sight of their A-games.

Over the weekend, the Wildcats competed at an extremely difficult tournament, winning four out of five against Twin Cities area teams. The Wildcats do not shy away from these tournaments against the best of the best, and it is a reason for their ongoing development as the seasons go on,

The BRC has also seen a lot of evolution over the last five or six years. Kealy said she often used some BRC matches to rotate in many student-athletes, but that is not the case anymore. Overall, the River Falls schedule truly features no breaks.

“I love the tournaments that we do go to,” Kealy said. “I like that idea that there is no break… Everybody is good, and I think that’s the playoff mentality that you have to have, because once playoffs start, you lose you’re done.”

Against Hudson, senior Amelie Pankonin led the way with 18 kills, followed by Dusek with 10 kills and 11 digs, Cegielski with seven kills and Skifter with six.

Kealy said Pankonin has really stepped up as the season has gone on.

“She has continued to evolve. I think she started the season and maybe came in a little slower than people expected, and now they see why she was the conference player of the year last year,” Kealy said.

Additionally, Kealy has been impressed with Cegielski’s ability to create offense from the middle position. As a former middle herself, Kealy knows the difficulty of doing the default job of the position while also finding ways to get creative, and Cegielski has stepped up.