ARLINGTON — The Highland Christian volleyball team found a lot of bright spots in the 3-0 loss they suffered at home Sept. 10 to Neah Bay.

Although the Knights lost 15-25, 18-25, 11-25, they did so to an older, more experienced team.

The girls also improved as the night went on.

The Highland Christian team didn’t return a single starter from last year’s squad. And their first game against Neah Bay had mistakes one would expect of such a new squad — there were serving errors and points awarded against them for illegal rotations. But the girls had several serving aces as well.

As the game went on, the girls cut into their errors. They worked on putting together passes the way they had in practice. And more than one girl earned a kill as the team successfully executed a play. They even led briefly in game two as the girls got better at getting under serves. Freshman Makenzie Enge had a kill to put Highland Christian up 6-4 in that game.

“For a first match, I was encouraged,” said coach Anthony Favors. “I told the girls they are a lot further in their player development than I thought. Their upside is huge.”

The girls passed best in the game with the lowest score. From the beginning of game three through about the 10th point, Highland Christian volleyed with the Red Devils and adjusted to each other’s movements, including Jackie Reimer’s well-placed dig to back up a save by fellow sophomore Esther Brown.

Brown led the Knights offensively with six aces and five kills, while junior Katrina Overgaard had six digs.

Although the girls made about 15 service errors, Favors said he was encouraged by their approach behind the back line. Their serving problems were mainly a precision issue, getting over the net but going out of bounds.

“When you take gambles, that will happen,” Favors said.

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