ROCHELLE — The Rochelle Lady Hub varsity volleyball team was in sync and capitalizing on mistakes during the early portion of its Interstate 8 match against Sycamore on Tuesday night.

Rochelle opened the match on a 9-2 run, with seniors Emma Kennay and Dempsey Atkinson maintaining consistent pressure on the Sycamore back line with strong and accurate serves. The Lady Hubs led the opening set by as many as 10 points, but the match quickly fell out of favor for the purple and white, as Sycamore flipped the momentum with its own service rallies and a constant outside attack to hand Rochelle a 24-26, 18-25 defeat on Tuesday evening.

“We kept sending balls back and we were scrappy in the beginning,” head coach Molly Sly said. “We made them make mistakes instead of handing them points and we were making them earn every point. We were touching balls with a purpose and that’s why we came out so strong.”

The Lady Hubs (9-8, 0-1 Interstate 8) held a 16-6 lead over the Spartans, who were forced to call two timeouts in the first set to stop Rochelle from surging ahead any further. Unforced errors hurt the Spartans early on, but as the first set progressed, Sycamore began turning the tide of the match, forcing the Lady Hubs into mistakes with service rallies of its own. A combination of hitting and receiving errors on Rochelle allowed the Spartans to surge back within two points.

As a result of a 16-4 run, Sycamore forced a Rochelle timeout with the Lady Hubs clinging to a 22-20 lead. The Spartans then took the lead and clinched the opening set on a bumped ball from well out of bounds that grazed the top of the net and landed on Rochelle’s end of the floor.

“Whenever we’re out of sync, we’re not bettering the ball and we forget to touch the ball with a purpose,” Sly said. “We saw that late in the first set and in the majority of the second set.”

Rochelle was unable to recapture its early momentum at any point during the second set, where the Lady Hubs continued to struggle with serve receives and running their offense. Meanwhile, Sycamore leaned on hitters Khiara Thomas and Ava Carpenter, who generated nearly all of the Spartan offense from the outside and behind the service line. Sycamore opened the second set on a 5-2 run and held an 18-11 lead later on, forcing Rochelle to use both of its timeouts.

“We have three practices this week and we’re going to give our girls a lot of touches,” Sly said. “We want our hitters to have more time with our new setters. I believe in each of them.”

A brief rally with junior Jaydin Dickey on the serve brought the Lady Hubs within four points, but Rochelle couldn’t extend the match to a third set, as a miscommunication on a tipped ball at the net allowed the Spartans to complete the sweep. Senior Taelynn Rodeghero finished with eight kills and Atkinson collected 13 digs for the Lady Hubs, while Dickey sent out six assists and four kills. Junior Meredith Bruns totaled eight assists and Kennay had seven digs in the loss.