CROTHERSVILLE — Crothersville volleyball coach Scott Sage said the Bloomington Lighthouse Christian volleyball team made a few more good plays than his Tigers on Friday night, resulting in a 25-22, 25-11, 25-23 win.

“We were similar in talent and in experience, too. It’s just unfortunate we didn’t make enough plays, and they made just enough plays to come out on top,” he said.

The Tigers opened up a 7-2 lead in the first set on an ace serve from Brooklyn Bottorff. Another ace by Laekon Colwell put the Tigers up 11-3, and the Tigers were leading 16-11 when the Lions began their comeback as they pulled to within 16-15.

The set was tied at 21 before the Tigers took a 22-21 lead on a Lighthouse passing error. The visitors got the serve back and scored the final four points for the win.

The Lions jumped on top 7-1 in the second set to lead all the way. An ace by Colwell cut Lighthouse’s lead to 14-6, and the Lions were leading 21-8 when the Tigers scored three straight points for a 21-11 score, but that was as close as they could get.

The third set was tied six times, the final time at 12, before the Lions pulled ahead by narrow margins. An ace by Bottorff kept the Tigers close, trailing 18-17. Lighthouse built its lead to 22-18, but the Tigers closed to 22-21 but were unable to tie the score.

Bottorff was 13-13-5 and Ord was 8-10-1 in serving. Bottorff was 9-12-4 and Zoey Prince was 15-18-4 in attacks.

Grace Smith was 37-38-7 in assists, and Maddie Smith had eight digs and Prince had 10.

“They deserve the win,” Sage said. “We didn’t serve-receive very well. We know that is one of our opportunities to get better. We’ve had one practice in the last week and a half. We’ve played a lot of matches.”

The Tigers lost to Southwestern (Hanover) 25-11, 25-12, 25-6 at home on Thursday night.

In serving, Ord was 7-8-1, and Prince was 6-6.

Bottorff led the Tigers in attacks with 10-13-4. Grace Smith was 27-27-5 in assists, and Maddie Smith topped the team in digs with seven.

Sage said the Tigers just need to keep working hard in practice.

“We call serve and serve-receive first contact, so first contact is always super important to any team at any level, ” he said. “So if we can’t consistently serve to serve-receive, we will continue to struggle.”

The Tigers are 1-10 and play at South Decatur on Monday night.

“That is a school I’m familiar with. I’ve got friends over there, and they’ve got kids playing for South Decatur,” Sage said. “They’re a pretty good team, too, so nobody is going to give us a break just because we’re down to seven players or nobody is going to give us a break because we’re really young. We just have to go out and play better.”