The Whitehall girls volleyball team continues to search for their elusive first win of the 2019 season after dropping their match to Freedom on Thursday, 25-19, 25-5, 25-9.

The Zephyrs were as close as 21-19 in the first set, but after the Patriots ran off the last 4 points, the wind left their sails.

Head coach Victoria Bobyak spoke about the difficulty of reversing the momentum of a match.

“Once we get down and miss a few passes then we get into a funk and we can’t get ourselves back up,” she said. “That’s what we struggle with. We have to be a little more self-aware and not dig a hole that deep.”

Whitehall has struggled with front line play all season, both attacking and blocking. In this match, they also struggled with the serve of Pates’ setter Grace Grandinetti. Freedom tallied 28 points on Grandinetti’s serve across the three sets, including a 13-point run in the second set that took the score from 1-1 to 14-1.

Statistically, the Olivia Ballard lead the Zephyrs with 6 kills, Amanda Mortimer chipped in a pair. Mortimer, Ballard, Emily Kloiber, and Kassie Acquino all had 2 blocks. Ali Gerancher had 9 assists. or Levan lead the team with 17 digs. G a her had 9.

“I’m disappointed, there’s no other word,” Bobyak said. “It’s back to basics for us and we have a lot of work to do. At this point, we need a win. I think everybody needs it. This is going to be a process. We’ll just take it game by game.”

The EPC in general and the Skyline Division in particular don’t afford many opportunities for a struggling team to right itself. The best chances to pick up some wins might be during the last week of September when Whitehall will face East Stroudsburg South, Easton, and Dieruff over a period of four days.