Southside looked to build early-season momentum Wednesday at Washington by following up a 3-0 win over Columbia with a victory against the Lady Pack. They fell short, 3-1, but still showed a lot of promise in a hard-fought match.

The tone was set early in a long first set. Sarah Singleton’s kill late in the set gave Southside a 28-27 lead before Washington hit the ball out of bounds to give its visitors the match point.

“We have a lot of talent on the team,” coach Atyana Starkie said of how Southside is faring early in the campaign. “Right now, we’re working on trying to find the right combination and putting it all together with teamwork.”

The Lady Pack stormed out in the second set. The girls took a 12-6 lead early on thanks to a string of serving aces by Briley Waters. They were able to create more separation, despite good blocking from Southside, en route to a 25-16 win that evened the match at 1-1.

The script was flipped in the third set when it was the Lady Seahawks that flew out and took a commanding lead early on. Strong serving from Symone Ruffin gave them a 7-0 lead before Washington earned 11 unanswered points.

The Lady Pack pulled as far ahead as a 20-16 lead late in the set. Southside stayed close, but Washington took a 2-1 lead with a 25-21 win in the third set.

Southside, hoping to level things and force a decisive fifth set, again took an early lead in the fourth set. The Lady Seahawks had a 15-9 lead before Washington went on a 7-0 run to erase its deficit. The homestanding Lady Pack took a 21-17 lead, hoping to close out the visitors, but Southside rallied. The Lady Seahawks took a late 23-21 lead and seemed poised to tie the match at 2-2 before Washington scored four in a row to earn a 25-23 victory and win the match.

The season-opening win was a cherry on top of an important match. New Washington coach Kendall Hihn found a lot of value in the different situations that her Washington squad found itself in throughout the back-and-forth match.

“You learn how the girls react to being behind,” Hihn said. “I saw this last set, they started getting behind and they started getting quiet. I told them that the more y’all talk, the better you play. I’ve seen this before. The more you communicate and the more you’re open with your players and teammates, the more you finalize plays.”

In the end, Washington’s communication seemed to be what gave it the edge over a talented Southside group. Rallying from a loss in the first set was impressive considering the somewhat depleted Lady Pack lineup, too.

“We are actually down a couple of players,” Hihn said. “One of our seniors (Meghan Moore) is out for a couple of weeks because of her shoulder. Another solid middle hitter in Summer Campbell is out because of a doctor’s appointment. Even down and out, they still pulled together. We talked about it before — this is our game plan, this is what we’re going to do and they executed it to perfection.”