The Dougherty Valley women’s volleyball team suffered a 3-1 defeat at the hands of the Foothill Falcons at a home game on Sept. 27.

Despite winning the first set 27-25, the Wildcats were unable to overcome the Falcons, losing 25-11, 25-23 and 25-21 in the next three sets, respectively.

Starting off the first set, sophomore Ofure Iselen spiked the ball across the net and scored the first point for the Wildcats. However, they were unable to gain a strong lead, and the teams were neck and neck throughout the whole set. After an offensive error and failing to return the ball over the net, the Falcons ultimately lost the first set.

Despite this initial loss for the Falcons, they dominated the remaining sets.

The Wildcats started the second set with a kill from sophomore Sarah Yao and a serve from sophomore Alivia Gee that landed out of bounds. With a block from Iselen, the Wildcats kept a strong lead until 11-6, when the Falcons began to catch up and dominated the rest of the set.

In both the third and fourth sets, neither team gained a significant lead. Still, despite their best efforts, the Wildcats were unable to overcome Foothill and lost both sets.

The score remained close throughout the entire third set, but after losing the rally at 24-23, the Wildcats lost. Wildcats kept up with the Falcons for the majority of the fourth set. However, at 21-20, Foothill won multiple rallies and pulled away, once again triumphing over the Wildcats.

“We could have played a little bit better. We had it in the first game and we kind of let down. We made some mistakes we shouldn’t have been making [such as] passing errors, and it just hurt us,” Head Coach Pat Hallahan said.

The Wildcats will face off against California High on Oct. 11.