Staff photo by Ari Selvey Sleepy Eye’s Makayla Strong hits the ball past a Martin County West defender during a Tomahawk-Valley Conference crossover volleyball match Monday at Sleepy Eye High School.

SLEEPY EYE — Despite gaining 5- and 7-point leads in the final two sets of a Tomahawk-Valley Conference crossover volleyball match against Martin County West, Sleepy Eye was unable to take a set against the Mavericks, falling 25-14, 25-21, 26-24 on Monday night.

“Overall I think we just came out flat,” Sleepy Eye head coach Sydney Geiger said. “I talked to the girls about that. We came out really flat. Low energy, not moving, not talking, not doing the things we were doing last Thursday even. We didn’t do a lot of that tonight. Really it comes down on us coming out not ready. That’s what it felt like.”

Martin County West, on the other hand, stayed in it even when they were down significantly, a situation that they have practiced often.

“[We have] hard practices where we are in situations where we’re down all the time, and they have to build their way back,” MCW head coach Kayla Zehms said. “So when we were down by 20-14 or whatever it was, it was, ‘Hey, you’re in this spot all the time, you’re going to have to work a lot harder if you want to get out of this, if you want to get this win.’ And that’s all it takes, and they’re very motivated.”

Maddie Carlson led the Mavericks with 11 kills, 12 digs and an ace, while Emily Anderson had six kills, 15 digs and three aces. Gianna Chase had five kills and a block, while Emily Schettler had 22 set assists and six digs. Courtney Anderson added 17 digs and two aces.

Zehms also said her team did a great job of passing from the back row, the foundation for setting up any offense in volleyball.

“Passing is always key for us,” Zehms said. “When we can have a good pass, our offense can do a lot for us. Just keeping that pass there and keeping our focus there, picking up were our holes are on the hitting so that we can utilize those and go.”

For Sleepy Eye, Paige Haala had 13 kills and 16 digs, while Sam Price had 10 kills and seven digs. Ava Kunkel had 26 set assists and three aces.

Set 1 was even early on, and MCW was the first to break away with a 4-0 run to go up 12-7 and draw a Sleepy Eye timeout. The Mavericks continued to build the lead with the help of two aces from Carlson, along with kills from Camryn Clow, Carlson and Emily Anderson, to go up 20-13 and force another Sleepy Eye timeout. MCW finished off the set with a 5-1 run, capitalized by a set-ending kill by Anderson

Sam Price got hot in Set 2 for Sleepy Eye, getting six kills in the set and 4 of the first 6 points for the Indians as Sleepy Eye went up 6-1. Sleepy Eye maintained that lead for an 11-6 advantage before a kill by Chase kickstarted a 5-0 run by the Mavericks to tie the game at 11.

The teams battled back and forth, with two kills by Price being matched by a block by Chase. MCW was able to have the final run as they put up 4 unanswered points to win the set 25-21.

Price once again started of Set 3 on fire, getting three kills early, but this time MCW was able to keep pace, limiting the Sleepy Eye lead to 6-4. Sleepy Eye slowly pulled away with an ace by Kunkel and kills by Haala and Kayla Hecth to go up 12-7, then a pair of kills by Jaelynn Schauman helped maintain that lead to a 20-14 game and an MCW timeout.

After going down 22-15 on a kill by Haala, the Mavericks regrouped, going on a5-0 run to cut the lead to 22-20 and force a Sleepy Eye timeout. A pair of kills by Emily Anderson after two hard-fought volleys was followed by two kills by Carlson, completing the comeback for a 26-24 win.

MCW (15-8) hosts Cedar Mountain on Tuesday. Sleepy Eye (12-12-1) awaits playoff seeding for its next game.