Seabury Academy's Liz Hughes stretches to return a volley against Elwood. The Seahawks defeated Elwood and lost to St. James Academy on Thursday at Seabury.

The only thing that was hot for the Seabury volleyball squad on Thursday was the gymnasium.

The Seahawks started off the night flat against an outmatched Elwood team, but were barely able to come away with a 2-0 (27-25, 28-26) victory.

“I think we had a tougher time getting fired up against Elwood because we beat them before,” Seabury’s Molly Thurman, who had 11 kills in the match with the Panthers. “We kind of knew what to expect, and that’s kind of what we struggled with before – not playing up to our potential. And I think that’s a lot of what we did tonight.”

Seahawks coach Craig Friedrichsen added, “Elwood was Elwood. I never thought that we were going to lose the match – never did. Because I think that we can make plays.”

But against a more dominating force in St. James Academy, Seabury just couldn’t build any momentum, losing 2-0 (25-17, 25-15).

“I felt thrilled that we had a chance to play St. James, because they were what I thought that they were going to be,” Friedrichsen said. “Going to 15 points, I thought we were playing right with them, and then all of a sudden they kind of stretch it out and you just lose touch a little bit.”

What was most surprising for Friedrichsen was how his team struggled with its serving against St. James. The squad combined for nine service errors in the match with the Thunder and could only pick up a pair of aces – one from Melissa Burch and the other from Kirsten Vogel.

“We don’t do that. We work a lot on serving and we don’t do that,” Seabury’s coach said. “But I think part of it was, when you get emotional and then you get so much energy when you stand back to serve you’ve got to calm down. But I think they were rushing a little bit, all jazzed up from the match and then they miss serves.”

Molly Thurman of Seabury Academy returns a serve against Elwood High. The Seahawks defeated Elwood on Thursday at Seabury.

Pair the poor serving and a rock-solid performance at the net from the Thunder and scoring was just hard to come by.

In game two, after picking up four straight points to take a 6-5 lead, the Seahawks never could string together consecutive points the rest of the way.

“If you went and asked their coach – I wonder how many of those girls played club ball during the offseason,” said Friedrichsen, whose squad couldn’t block any of St. James’ attacks on net. “Because I’ll bet six or seven or eight of them did – maybe the whole team.”

Friedrichsen said he felt the home atmosphere may have also factored into the tight play by his squad in both matches.

“You never know what’s going to happen when you play at home versus on the road,” Friedrichsen said. “And I made a big deal about getting friends here, and I think the kids were a little nervous.

“But it’s OK. A month from now we’re going to be a lot better because of things like this. I think our girls understand now, that in order to compete at this level, they need to do things differently.”