PINE GROVE - Pine Grove's young volleyball team learned a valuable lesson Tuesday.
When you have an opponent down, you need to knock them out.
The Cardinals dominated the first two sets of Tuesday's Schuylkill League Division II opener against Lourdes Regional before falling apart late in set 3 and trailing most of set 4.
A pair of aces by Sam Bertasavage and kills by Barbie Dimon and Rachel Troxell helped Pine Grove finish off a 25-16, 25-16, 20-25, 25-22 victory over the Red Raiders.
"Young kids, once they lose their focus ... we're working on how to recover from that," Pine Grove coach Daryl Wessner said. "Tonight we did a nice job."
Everything worked to perfection in the first two sets for the Cardinals (1-0, 1-0 D-II), as solid passing from the back row to setter Lauren Thompson (30 assists) led to big hits by Dimon, Bertasavage (10 kills) and Troxell (9 kills).
Dimon dominated for several stretches of the first two games, tallying 11 of her game-high 16 kills. The senior middle hitter was all over the court, excelling on defense, placing good serves and finishing at the net.
"She's been doing this for three years. I don't want to say you're ever complete, but she's getting there," Wessner said of Dimon. "We've realized with this team that we have to go to certain people, and Barbie is one of those people. We have to get her the ball. That's where we're going to get points."
Lourdes (0-1, 0-1) helped the Cardinals' cause with seven service errors and a bevy of bad passes in the first two sets.
The Red Raiders started to turn things around midway through the third set, however. Trailing 18-12, an ace by Maura Frasch started an 8-0 run that included two more aces by Frasch, a big block by Molly Loftus, a kill by Kayla Shamus and three Pine Grove hitting errors.
Loftus, who finished with 15 kills, added another big smash to finish off Set 3.
"We haven't had any live action," Lourdes coach Rich Weikel said. "Once they settled down, I think we played OK.
"We didn't pass very well off their serve the first two games. That's what gave us most of the problems. You can't give up free points."
Lourdes carried the momentum into set 4, using some big plays by Elen O'Donnell and strong serves by Shamus and Peyton Klembara to build a 13-9 lead. The Red Raiders held leads of 17-13, 18-14 and 19-16 before Pine Grove knotted the contest at 20.
After the teams traded points, Bertasavage's two aces and a kill by Dimon put the Cardinals ahead to stay.
Lourdes won the JV match 25-21, 25-21.
"It's good to start with a win on your home court. We go forward from here," Wessner said.
"We did what we had to do. Lourdes is an aggressive, athletic team. I think we're going to have a lot of nights like this this year."