It was a welcome sign of progress for the Whitehall girls volleyball team as they prevailed in a tough battle with Saucon Valley for their first win of the season.

The girls won in five sets, winning 21-25, 25-19, 15-25, 25-22, 15-10 on Monday night. With the win they were 1-4 on the year, and it also marked the first win for new coach Eric Budge.

In that victory, Alyson Peters collected 22 kills and 5 blocks, while Lexi Crum had 43 assists. Additionally, Taylor Levan tallied 11 digs and 8 aces, and Olivia Ballard registered 10 digs.

Budge said that Peters has been shouldering a lot of the offensive load. He said the senior has set the tone offensively this season for the Zephyrs, and that was evident in her stat line against Saucon Valley.

“She’s really pulling a lot of the offensive weight and being a great team leader,” said Budge. “She’s helping our younger players get a lot more experience.”

They tried to follow that up with a win against Freedom the next night, but the Patriots won in straight sets. They’ll try to get back into the win column with games against Pocono Mountain West and Pottsville this week.

The Zephyrs took an early lead against the Patriots in the third set, and maintained the edge until midway through the set when two Freedom balls made contact with the net disrupting the timing of the Zephyrs. That helped the Pates take a 16-14 advantage, and from the point the home team never relinquished the lead.

Budge said that it’s a matter of gaining more experience, something that will come with each passing match.

“It’s young team, and with experience we’re going to learn how to close out games,” said Budge. “They’re working through that whole idea of closing out games right now.”

He said that last night they did a great job closing out against the Panthers, leading to victory. Tuesday’s game was a different story as they played well throughout the sets but couldn’t shut the door on their Eastern Pennsylvania Conference foes.

Budge said that it’s going to take more reps and simply gaining more experience in order to secure more victories as the season progresses.

“We go through it in practice and we work on these things, and you can simulate a game, but you can’t recreate a game,” said Budge. “So the more they get with their experience, the better they’re going to be.”