Lady Trojan Leah Coleman delivers a spike as teammate Tai’Leah Cowles looks on.
In a contest between evenly matched teams, Essex couldn’t get the ball to land on the opposite side of the net at pivotal times as the Lady Trojans dropped a 3-set encounter to visiting Mathews on October 20.
Mathews won the match 25-10, 26-24, and 25-14.
The setback extended the Lady Trojans (3-13) losing streak to 11. Mathews improved its overall record to 7-8.
“It seems like we beat ourselves every time,” Essex coach James Jeter said afterward. “We woke up after that first set. We came out cold and that’s what happens when you don’t warm up like you should.”
Essex, which lost a 5-set match to the Lady Blue Devils when they met at Mathews last month, gave away 33 points on execution errors.
The Lady Trojans managed to score just 20 of their 48 points on winners, while Mathews collected 49 points on winners.
The most competitive set was the second game which featured 9 ties and 4 lead changes.
Leah Coleman, Tai’Leah Cowles and Morgan Self posted ace services as Essex built a 20-18 advantage.
Lady Trojan Morgan Self attempts to block an attack by Colonial Beach’s Olivia Cooke.
Later, Essex’s Jaedynn Biller ace service put the home team at set-point, but the Lady Trojans couldn’t finish off the game as Mathews ran off 3 consecutive points to take a 25-24 lead.
Mathews took the set when Essex failed to return a subsequent service.
In the third set, Essex bolted to a 5-0 lead behind 3 winners, but Mathews fire back with 8 unanswered points to take the lead for good.
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