ROYAL CITY - After struggling a week and a half against top-notch, state-level competition, Royal High School played a good volleyball match against Warden but still lost in four games, 14-25, 19-25, 25-20 and 24-26.

The Knights played well in the last two games, scoring 25 and 24 points. But their 14-point and 19-point start was too much to overcome.

"We got off to another slow start in the first game, something we will be working on in practice," coach Paul Olsufka said. "We need to be mentally-emotionally and physically ready to enter into each contest."

"Once we got into it," he added, "we competed well and had our opportunities to push it to a fifth game but could not close it out."

The Knights got the serve in the fourth game, down 20-24, and were able to tie the score at 24 behind the serving of Kayla Smith. But the next two points went to Warden for the win.

"I was pleased with the effort of the girls, Olsufka said. "Again we need to be more consistent and pick each other up when things do not go well."

The Knights got some good bench play from some non-starters to help lift the team into the match after the first game.

Lindsey Small went 8-for-9 serving with two kills and nine digs. Taylor Freeman went 15-16 serving with three kills and four digs, and Seila Jenks had two aces, 10 assists and five digs.

Smith connected on 17 of 19 serves, made two aces and had four kills and nine digs. Gracelynn Miller went 9-10 serving, with three aces and four digs, and Rebecca Lee had 9-10 serving with two aces

Earlier in the week, facing the last of the state-caliber competition, Royal lost to Lind-Ritzville, 10-25, 8-25 and 13-25.

"It was a rough week and a half against teams that will probably be in the state tournament," Coach Paul Olsufka said. "I liked the spirit of the girls. They gave it all they have."

Lindsay Small led the Royal attack with 6-for-6 serving, one kill, five digs and one block. Seila Jenks went 4-5 with one ace, Kayla Smith had one ace and two blocks

"We need to focus on the fundamentals at each position and take care of our responsibilities on the court," Olsufka said. "Becoming more consistent is the key to our girls turning our season around on a positive note."