The Luverne Cardinal volleyball team put up a good fight before falling to defending Southwest Conference champion Jackson County Central in Jackson Thursday.
Luverne staged a rally to post a two-point win in the opening game of the match, but the Huskies went on to outscore LHS 45-23 the rest of the night while recording a 3-1 victory.
The loss left the Cards with a 0-2 Southwest Conference record and a 6-5-1 mark overall.
Although LHS came up on the short end on the floor, it wasn't due to a lack of effort.
"We dug up a lot of balls and played hard in between points," said Cardinal coach Mary Jo Graphenteen. "We just didn't score enough points. We really are working hard. We just do not get any easy points or easy wins."
Luverne's determination led to a late run in Game 1 that gave the Cards a 16-14 victory.
The Cards led 8-5 in Game 2 before the Huskies went on a 10-0 run that gave them a 15-8 win.
JCC prevailed 15-8 in Game 3 before using a 6-0 run in Game 4 to pull away and gain a 15-7 win.
"If we can hang in there, cut down the number of unforced errors and improve on finding the open holes on the court, we'll do great. We'll just have to go back to the drawing board and keep working at it," Graphenteen added.
Fifteen missed serves hurt the Cards in the match, but Amy Nunez had a good night at the line by completing 11 of 13 attempts and registering three aces.
Susan Remme and Nicole Aaker led the Cards at the net with 13 and four kills respectively.
Luverne hosts Windom tonight and Lincoln HI Tuesday.