COEUR d’ALENE — Lake City stopped making service errors, started passing better and survived a five-set marathon with city rival Coeur d’Alene on Tuesday night.

Janae Rayborn totaled 19 kills, 16 digs and three aces as the host Lake City Timberwolves outlasted the shorthanded Coeur d’Alene Vikings 21-25, 25-20, 25-19, 23-15, 15-10 in an early season battle for first place in the 5A Inland Empire League.

“I thought we started really slow, and kinda sloppy,” Lake City coach Mike Summers said. “We kinda regressed backwards with our service errors — we had way too many service errors tonight.”

Lake City (5-0, 3-0 5A IEL) had five aces, but 19 service errors, most of them in the first two sets.

Elly Schraeder had 15 kills, Taylin Rowley nine for Coeur d’Alene (9-3, 1-1), which was playing without two starters — outside hitter Sarah Wilkey (concussion) and middle blocker Lily Hare (sprained ankle), who were both injured Saturday at the SunDome Volleyball Festival in Yakima.

Still, the Vikings fought gamely.

“We had to adjust our lineup due to injury,” Coeur d’Alene coach Carly Curtis said. “But the girls that came up from the JV fought hard for us. We just had some unforced errors that cost us the game — serving errors and communication errors with some new kids.”

Brenna Hawkins added 11 kills for Lake City, a few of them big ones in the fifth set, and two blocks. Nellie Reese had 39 assists, Jaya Miller 25 digs.

Lake City missed 14 serves in the first two sets, eight of those in the second. Coeur d’Alene missed five serves in the second set, and at one point in the middle of the set, the teams combined to miss four straight.

Coeur d’Alene scored the first five points of the match and won the first set on a kill down the line from the outside by Paige Drechsel.

Rayborn’s kill from the outside gave Lake City the second set. Rayborn had five kills in the third set, including one on set point to put the Timberwolves up a set.

Coeur d’Alene carved out a slim lead late in the fourth set with a kill down the line by Rowley from the right side, followed by a block by Symons, a freshman, and Phillips. Rowley’s kill forced a deciding set.

In the fifth set, Lake City jumped out to a 6-1 lead, capped by an ace by Rayborn. Hawkins kept the momentum on Lake City’s side with a tip kill for a 9-4 lead, and the Vikings came no closer than four points the rest of the way.

Lauren Phillips had 16 assists and 16 digs for Coeur d’Alene. Courtney Garwood had 20 assists, Rowley 10 digs, Schraeder two aces and a block, Madi Symons one block.

“You try to tell them to take some positives from this game,” Curtis said. “We had to make some adjustments and move some people around, and had to have our setter (Lauren Phillips) hit outside, and I thought she did well. “It’s always tough to lose, but we’ve got a lot of positive things to look forward to.”

A hit by Coeur d’Alene sailed just long on match point.

“I thought we were kind of sloppy tonight,” Summers said. “I thought the defense started sloppy, but then it really picked up and helped us with the win.

“We’ve got to clean some stuff up for the next time we play them.”

That meeting is scheduled for Oct. 15 at Coeur d’Alene High, in the regular season finale for both teams.