CROTHERSVILLE

Coach Kourtney Settle says when her Crothersville volleyball team has a lead late in a set, it needs to learn how to remain in front and put the Tigers in the win column.

The Tigers held a 10-4 lead in the second set, and a 22-16 lead in the third set against Orleans Tuesday night, but couldn’t maintain those leads.

The result was a 25-13, 25-16, 25-22 loss to a sectional rival.

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“They just waited too long to decide to play,” Settle said of her team. “I told them in the locker room that you can’t wait until the third set of a match to actually come out and play your hardest.

“I’ve told the girls multiple times, and I think it sounds cliché, but they just don’t know how to win. They were up by nine points (14-5) and they just couldn’t finish. They just don’t know how to win. They’ve got to figure it out. I’ve told them everything I can, it’s up to them now.

“It’s almost like we get in a position where it’s, ‘OK, we’re good, we’ve got this,’ but we make one mistake and we freak out and we’re done, so they just need to learn how to play through. If they make a couple mistakes they just have to shake them off. Orleans had a couple of the strongest hitters we’ve seen so far. We need to work on blocking, too.”

Sam Hurtt served six straight points to help the tigers take a 10-2 lead in the third set, and they held 14-5 and 22-16 leads later in the set before the Bulldogs rallied for the final nine points.

Orleans jumped in front 3-0 in the first set and held leads of 10-3 and 15-11 before outscoring the Tigers 10-2 down the stretch.

The Tigers jumped on top 6-1 in the second set behind a kill by Maddie Riley, and held a 12-11 lead before the Bulldogs scored five straight points to lead the rest of the set.

Crothersville was 41-for-43 with 15 kills in attacks, with Riley going 22-24-9 and Tayler Brewer had three kills to go along with three blocks.

The Tigers were 46-55-2 in serves with Hurt 16-6, Makayla Helt was 9-9, and Cook and Kaitlyn Silvers both had aces.

“I told them in the locker room they know what they need to work on, the just need to do it,” Settle said.

The Tigers (0-6) and will host Lighthouse Christian of Bloomington on Friday night.