Elise Stella shook her head in frustration following her one-ace performance during Seabury Academy’s 25-19, 25-14 loss Tuesday evening against Cair Paravel at the Seabury Triangular.

The lone ace totally killed her average for the day. After all, she fired nine aces during the Seahawks’ earlier match, a 25-20, 25-9 win against Olathe Christian.

“I’m a little disappointed about that, actually,” she said. “Just a little bit.”

Disappointed but understanding, considering Cair Paravel was a much more skilled opponent.

Olathe Christian was no match for either the Seahawks or Lions. Cair Paravel trounced the Warriors with 24 aces in its 25-4, 25-12 victory before Seabury thumped them with 27 aces.

As spectacular as Stella was, she simply was the leader of the firing squad against the Warriors. Laura Hoffman had nine aces, too. Katie George added three more, while Lindsey Ahlen offered two aces and had five kills.

All of the early success against Olathe Christian came back to stun the Seahawks against Cair Paravel. Accustomed to a slower pace, the Lions presented an up-tempo game that Seabury wasn’t ready for.

“It was hard for us to pick up our energy,” Stella said. “We needed to move for the ball and make sure we were precise in what we were doing. In the first game we got too lazy and let them get ahead.”

The Lions brought a bevy of weapons that overwhelmed the Seahawks at times. Line-drive serves and a lot of difficult hits to Seabury’s back row contributed to a 10-2 run by Cair Paravel that gave it an 18-10 victory in Game One. Two kills by Melinda Nichols and Stella pulled Seabury within four before the Lions pulled away.

Seabury Academy's Elise Stella hits a serve in the second game against Olathe Christian. Stella had 15 aces in two games against Olathe Christian, and the Seahawks swept the Warriors, 2-0, during a triangular Tuesday at Seabury.

Game Two was a similar story. Cair Paravel took a 6-1 lead and forced Seabury to play catch-up the rest of the way. Morgan Grau pounded five kills, and Savannah Keller added four for the Lions.

Meanwhile, seven service errors and a few communication lapses dug the hole deeper. Ahlen had four kills but it wasn’t enough to keep Seabury in the game.

Despite the mistakes, Seabury coach Craig Friedrichsen said there were positives his team could take from its loss.

“Cair Paravel’s a nice team. That’s the kind of team we need to become,” he said. “They serve well, they pass the ball and they keep it in play. When you do that you have chances to win.

“You saw we can play at that pace, it’s just that we had little breakdowns, and little breakdowns add up on the score really fast.”