ROYAL CITY - The Royal High volleyball team lost matches to Kiona-Benton and River View last week, but play improved in the second match.

Ki-Be won in three matches, 25-18, 25-13, 25-23. RV prevailed in five games, 15-25, 25-15, 24-26, 34-32, 15-6.

The first RV game featured a long rally for the final point. The ball went back and forth over the net with neither team willing to give in.

"We finally did come away with the point and the win for the set," coach Paul Olsufka said.

In the third set the girls fought hard and came back from being down most of the set. RV had the lead, 24-21, when Seila Jenks served the next five points to come away with the set win.

In the fourth game, Royal just could not finish the deal to win the match. The Knights again were down 24-21 when they got the ball back to serve. This time Tonya Iverson served three in a row to knot the game at 24-all.

At that point the contest went back and forth. Royal took the lead, 26-25, tied at 26 and went ahead at 27-26. The Knights' last lead was 32-31, eventually losing 34-32.

"In the final set we just could not get anything going to came away with a match victory," Olsufka said. "I was very proud of the girls and their never die attitude. The ball just did not fall in our favor."

Iverson and Kayla Smith led the Knights at the net with 10 and eight kills respectively. Smith served 14-14 and made a block. Iverson was 13-15 serving with one ace.

Tahlia Ledezma had 22 assists, 1 kill and 17-18 serving while Jenks had 19-24 serving with 1 ace.

Morgan Small had 13-14 serving and 2 kills, Katie Ellis served 12-14 serving with 2 aces and 4 kills, and Rebecca Lee had 5-6 serving and 1 kill.

The stats against Ki-Be were: Ellis: 2 kills and 2 digs; Iverson: 1 kill, 1 block and 2 digs; Smith: 2 kills, 3 blocks; Small: 3 digs; Jenks: 1 kill, 2 digs and 1 assist; Lee: 1 kill and 1 dig; and Ledezma: 4 assists, 3 digs, 1 kill and 3 aces.