On Thursday, Oct. 7, the Prescott volleyball team lost a home conference match in four sets to the visiting Osceola Chieftains, dropping the Cardinals’ conference record to 3-3 for the season.

The home match against Osceola was the final regular season home match of the year for Prescott. The crowd was packed and so was the student section as the senior volleyball players were honored individually for their contributions to the Prescott volleyball program.

The loud, high-energy crowd certainly played a factor in the first set as Prescott came out playing like their season depended on it. After going back and forth for the first several points, the Cardinals put a small scoring run together to get out to an 11-8 lead. However, that lead was quickly erased when Osceola responded with a run of its own to take a 13-12 lead.

The first set remained close for the next several points and was tied at various points including 14-14, 19-19, and 22-22. The score throughout the first set remained so close that the set went into extra points. In the end, Prescott pulled away and won the set 28-26 to take a 1-0 series lead.

It was the only set that the Cardinals won all night. Prescott got out to a small lead at the beginning of the second set, but Osceola came charging back and took the lead 7-6. It was the final time that Prescott led during the second set. The Chieftains continued expanding the lead and eventually were up 18-13. The ballooning lead forced a timeout by Prescott head coach Geoffrey Snyder to slow the momentum. Even after the timeout, Osceola continued putting scoring bursts together that resulted in a 25-19 second set victory to tie the series 1-1. After the game, coach Snyder spoke about what Osceola did well in the match and what Prescott needed to do better.

“They played extraordinary defense,” Snyder said after the match. “They pick up basically anything. It takes a mentally tough team to do that and we did it in parts here and there in the second, third and fourth sets, but there just wasn’t enough consistency.”

The best offense is often a great defense. That was certainly true for Osceola on Thursday night. Great defense and what was essentially a shifting wall allowed Osceola to get cheap, easy points whereas Prescott was constantly battling for every single point. The third set was less competitive because Osceola hit its stride. The Chieftains got out to an early four-point lead and carried it to the end of the third set for a 25-16 victory to take a 2-1 lead in the series for the night.

The Cardinals’ struggles continued in the fourth set. Osceola got out to a 10-7 lead and continued to play technically sound volleyball. The great defense that Snyder spoke of kept Prescott points to a minimum. The Chieftains rolled to a 25-12 victory to defeat Prescott in four sets, including three consecutive wins to end the series. Snyder spoke about what the message to his team was after the loss.

“We’ve got work to do,” Snyder said. “There is always work to do this time of the season. It’s hard to rein them in and focus and send that message. We were right there with (Osceola), we can play good volleyball.”

The final conference match of the regular season for Prescott is on Tuesday, Oct. 12, on the road against Baldwin-Woodville. Snyder spoke about what the team needs to do better against Baldwin-Woodville to get a win.

“Converting defensive plays into offensive points,” Snyder said. “We need to do what Osceola did tonight on almost every play. We need to be able to hit hard on defensive plays and do those things better.”

The aforementioned matchup against Baldwin-Woodville was slated to begin at 7 p.m.

Prescott Cardinals senior Lexus Metz tosses the ball in the air to begin her serve against the Osceola Chieftains on Thursday, Oct. 7.Photo by Reagan Hoverman