MOSES LAKE - The frustration was visible on head coach Michael DeHoog's face from the outset.

Moses Lake wasn't near its best and against a team like Eisenhower - ranked No. 7 in the state - that spelled a long evening.

The Chiefs (3-4, 3-6) struggled with serve receive for the entirety of the match and fell to the Cadets in three sets 12-25, 13-25, 17-25.

After Tuesday's five set loss to Wenatchee, DeHoog was disappointed his team didn't show a sense of urgency against Eisenhower (6-1, 6-1).

"Effort and communication," he said." Those are two big things ... We really talk about controlling what we can control - effort and communication - it wasn't here tonight.

The Cadets were in control for most of the match. Eisenhower began the first set on a 4-0 run and never looked back.

Moses Lake led briefly in the second set, 3-1, before Ike came storming back to take the lead for good.

"I'm frustrated by our effort, that's pretty much it," DeHoog said. "There was moments, but I mean not enough to even resemble what we need. That's tough because as a coach you want to try and strategize and get match-ups and do things to kind of impact the game but your hands are kind of tied if we can't execute the basic things."

The basic things included serve receive and creating attacking attempts for the Moses Lake hitters.

The Chiefs' side of the court was in constant disarray as Eisenhower methodically sent shot after shot over the net.

"We didn't take care of the little things," DeHoog said. "Serve receive, there's no way that we should've had I don't know how many aces against us."

Moses Lake still is in control of the fourth district playoff berth and will likely advance to the postseason if the team can take the season series from Sunnyside, Eastmont and Davis.

But DeHoog isn't satisfied with just winning when his team is favored. He wants to challenge the upper echelon of the Columbia Basin Big Nine.

"I want to compete, I want to put ourselves in a position to win and I almost feel like we determined the outcome before it happened tonight," he said. "Ike is - they're ranked seventh in the state for a reason - they're good. I'm just disappointed that we didn't fight a little bit more. They didn't get our best and I think that's my frustration. Ike still hasn't seen our best."

Moses Lake may get one more opportunity to show Eisenhower its best in the district tournament.