The Lady Pintos opened up their season against Boonville Thursday night, falling in straight sets, 25-21, 25-21.
California held early leads in both sets, before the Lady Pirates stormed back to take the lead, then held on for the victories in both sets.
"They were able to go line on us, then when we would shift line, they'd go cross court," California head coach Julie Bailey said. "They were making the adjustment to our defense, and we weren't doing the same."
In the first set, California jumped out quick with a 2-0 lead, then the two teams traded points to push the score to 10-10. After a serving error by Boonville, an Emma Bailey ace and a kill-error by Boonville, California regained the lead, 13-10.
But Boonville scored the next 11-of-14 points to take a 21-16 advantage. The three points scored by the Lady Pintos during that stretch were all on Boonville's serving errors.
California did make a push, cutting the lead to 23-19 after a Cameron Meyer kill, but the Lady Pirates held on for the first set win.
Meyer led the team with seven kills in the two sets, and Gracie George collected three.
"(Meyer) loves hitting outside," Bailey said. "We wanted to be able to use her outside, but when we lose Adrienne (Strickfaden), we can't. She has that nasty line shot, too, so we were trying to keep her outside as much as we could, but then we lose our block. So, that hurts us, too."
The second set was almost identical as the first, with California jumping out to an early lead, then Boonville making a run to gain the lead.
The Lady Pintos held an early 7-5 lead, stretching that out to 14-11 after a Meyer kill. But Boonville's Abbie Lemmons showed how much of a force she could on offense and defense. She recorded two kills and a block in a four-point sequence to bring the Lady Pirates to within a point.
"Yeah, she can jump," Bailey said. "Them going down the line was hurting us, and we weren't making an adjustment to that. At the same time, they were able to hit cross-court on us and get it right there in the middle. We weren't making the plays either."
Boonville was able to tie the game at 18, then reeled off the next four points to take a 22-18 lead. California cut the lead to 22-20 with the help of an error by Boonville and an ace by Carlie Bleich, but another Lemmons kill gave the Lady Pirates match-point. They went on to win on the next point.
"I think we had some nervousness that preventing us from playing at our best," Bailey said. "Definitely, they have some strong hitters, and we need to work on our coverage defensively. We have to figure out how to get around a block, and not go through it."
California's junior varsity A and junior varsity B squads defeated Boonville in its two matches in straight sets. The JVB team started off the night with a 2-0 (25-23, 26-24) win, then JVA won 2-0 (25-9, 25-22)
In the JVB game, the Lady Pintos trailed 24-22 in the second set, with Boonville trying to force a third. But after a long volley that saw California tie it at 24, the Lady Pintos scored the next two points for the set win.
The JVA team had no problem in the first set, but California had to fight back from an early 6-2 deficit in the second set to claim the match.
California's junior varsity and varsity squads will travel to Eldon on Thursday at 5:30 p.m.