OTTAWA — The Rochelle Lady Hub varsity volleyball team faced Ottawa on the road Thursday evening looking to avoid suffering a third straight loss to open the 2020-21 season.

Junior Sylvia Hasz posted her strongest outing of the week, finishing with a team-high eight kills and five digs as Rochelle battled the Pirates in an Interstate 8 Conference matchup. Despite a more competitive second set, service errors and inconsistent first touches hindered the Lady Hubs, who fell 16-25, 19-25 and moved to 0-3 overall. Senior Clare Green totaled 11 assists.

“We made some mid-match adjustments and we played better volleyball toward the end,” coach Lindsay Suess said. “We weren’t able to get enough touches on the blocks and we were giving them too many free balls. We swung well when we had good sets and I thought our passes were much better in the second set. We can’t give the other team too many free balls.”

Rochelle fell behind early in the match, with Ottawa leading 9-3 and forcing the Lady Hubs to call a timeout during the first set. With senior libero Ellie Kinn on the serve, Rochelle bounced back with a 7-4 run to bring the Pirates within three points and make Ottawa use a timeout.

Ottawa hitters Piper Nanouski and Ryleigh Stevenson restarted the Pirate offense midway through the first set, collecting a series of kills and service points to push Ottawa’s lead back to six points before the Pirates eventually closed out the set victory. Sophomore Baylie Sutton stepped up in the second set for the Lady Hubs, notching two blocks and helping Rochelle keep pace with Ottawa for most of the set.

Rochelle hosts Stillman Valley on Saturday at 11 a.m.