The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga volleyball team picked the wrong set to have a slow start.
The Mocs fell behind early in the fifth set of their Southern Conference match against East Tennessee State University on Wednesday night at Maclellan Gymnasium. Although they were able to rally within a point, they lost 15-12 in the deciding set to the 2016 SoCon tournament champions.
The Mocs (11-10, 4-3) are on the road for their next three matches, starting Saturday at Wofford (14-6, 4-2).
Against ETSU (9-9, 5-2), UTC never trailed while winning the first set 25-18. With an opportunity to build on that momentum in the second set, they failed, falling behind 9-4. While they were able to cut their deficit to three, the Buccaneers took five of the final six points and won the set 25-18.
"We had an opportunity to bring that first-set momentum with us, and that's what's most disappointing and frustrating with what happened there," UTC coach Travis Filar said. "Credit to ETSU - they came out with an urgency, and we came out too relaxed."
Filar was pleased with how his team responded to adversity throughout, though. They dropped the third set 25-16 but answered by jumping out to a 15-8 lead in the fourth and were able to hold on for a 25-23 win.
The Mocs fell behind 10-5 in the deciding set but cut the lead to one on a couple of occasions before ultimately falling on a kill by ETSU's Braedyn Tutton.
"The fifth set is a roll of the dice at a poker table," Filar said. "You've got to come out ready to go, and it's such a hard deal (because) you can throw everything out the window that's happened in sets one through four as far as things that have worked and haven't worked.
"You have to come out with an urgency, and I thought that ETSU came out with better urgency."
Ally Ford led the Mocs with a career-high 22 kills, while Miranda Elpers and Dani Szczepanski had nine. Elpers led the team with a career-high 26 digs and Lauren Greenspoon had 37 assists, but the Bucs had 18 blocks to the Mocs' five - a big difference in the match.
Elpers said the Mocs have been working on consistent performances, but it's still something they have to improve at.
"I think we get a certain level of complacency with how we play," she said. "It's getting better, but we know we can't be doing that. But at least we showed fight in coming back, and we usually come out better in the next match.
"We need to get better, and matches like these show our weaknesses so that we can work on them in practice."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.