WARDEN — Despite a close final three sets, the Warden Cougars suffered their first loss of the season Tuesday night, falling 3-1 to River View in a battle of the undefeated atop the Eastern Washington Athletic Conference (East).

Warden entered the game 10-0, while the Panthers came into the game 9-0.

“Every team wants to be undefeated, but it’s a lot of pressure too to have that,” Warden head coach Shanna Golladay said. “I feel like that (loss) can take a load off, and now we can focus on each game. We’re not going to be that 12-0, 13-0, and then we can just go in and play some volleyball.”

After the Cougars went up 4-0 in the first set, River View stormed back to tie the game at four, later taking the lead and scoring 13 of the next 18 points to take a 17-9 lead. River View won the first set 25-11 and went up 1-0.

The first-set loss was quickly put in the rearview mirror, as Warden answered and won the second set 25-23. River View took an early lead, but the Cougars came back with strong serving by senior Lauren Chamberlain, who recorded back-to-back aces to put Warden up by two midway through the set. After a 23-23 tie, Warden senior Lauryn Madsen gave her team the lead on a kill, with the Cougars winning the set on an out-of-bounds volley by the Panthers.

“They’ve been doing that all season; it’s kind of like their M.O.,” Golladay said. “They have one set that is not pretty at all, and then the next set they come out on fire. That’s something we’ve been working on; when they get a lead, they have to be able to put it away.”

Tuesday night’s third set was another close struggle down the stretch, as the Cougars rallied from down 20-13 to tie the game at 22 on another kill by Madsen. Despite the comeback, River View claimed a 2-1 lead in the match after winning the third set 25-23.

“They still need to learn to put it away in big games, and this was a good test for them,” Golladay said. “Every other close game that we’ve had they’ve put it away at the end and they had to fight hard for it. This was a good test for them to see if they’re ready for the postseason, to be mentally ready and make every play count.”

River View took a 15-10 lead in the fourth set, and a Cougar rally began with an ace by senior Briana Martinez. Both teams were tied at 20 before the Panthers scored on the final five rallies.

“They were making the right plays, trying to put it in the hole or down the line, and they were just a few inches off,” Golladay said. “I can’t fault them for those kinds of plays because I saw what they were doing, and sometimes things don’t go your way.”

Madsen led the Cougars with 16 kills, with senior Lauren Chamberlain totaling eight kills. The duo combined for four blocks and made several key plays to keep the Cougars in each of the three final sets.

“I’m very spoiled to have two amazing middles like that, especially in a 2B division,” Golladay said. “Both of them are really, really good at putting the ball away, really good at blocking and really good at that volleyball IQ.”

Warden returns to the court on Saturday on the road against Tri-Cities Prep at noon.

Box score

Panthers: 25-23-25-25 3

Cougars: 11-25-23-20 1