It was a scenario that the Emporia State volleyball team had already seen in practice.
And, according to Hornet coach Bing Xu, it’s one that will come up once again in the weeks to come.
ESU fell to No. 4 Truman 31-29, 30-22, 26-30, 30-18 on Saturday night, but it was a missed opportunity in Game One that frustrated Xu the most.
The Hornets rallied for five consecutive points to make it 29-28 but dropped the final three, losing the crucial first game, 31-29.
“In crunch time, all six players need to step up,” Xu said. “All six players need to give 100 percent. If you give 99 percent, you lose.”
It was the same difficult situation Xu had put his players in during an early workout.
“It didn’t show,” Xu said. “Twenty-eight-28. Two points away. We said, ‘Do you want this game or not? What kind of effort, what kind of desire are you going to put on the court?’”
Though ESU was able to hang the rest of the way with Truman, it never was able to overcome that early deficit.
It especially loomed large after Game Three, when the Hornets’ win would have forced a match-deciding Game Five.
“I think it would have changed a lot,” ESU libero Courtney Aguilar said. “I think we would have had confidence and known that we needed to keep pushing.”
ESU was its own worst enemy in Game Two. After putting together a run to tie it at 22, the Hornets dropped the final eight points, with three of those given to Truman on unforced mistakes.
“We had some communication errors,” Aguilar said. “Nobody stepped up to take charge, and that’s what hurts us.”
Xu called two timeouts during the stretch, becoming animated in the second one while trying to refocus his players.
“When you play this kind of team,” Xu said, “you can’t afford mental errors.”
The Hornets responded well in Game Three, taking eight of the final 11 points for a solid 30-26 win to force a fourth game.
The final game turned ugly. During one stretch, ESU dropped 10 out of 11 points to fall behind 25-12.
Mandy Chutskoff led ESU with 14 kills, while Jennifer Remmereid had 11.
Aguilar contributed 16 digs in her first match back with the team after an injury.
Freshman setter Kayla Nolte added 44 assists. She also was held out of a pair of matches last week because of injury problems with her toe.
Xu said the team would continue to work on pressure situations in practice.
“That’s the big thing right now for us,” Xu said. “Crunch time, crunch time, crunch time.”
ESU (10-10, 4-4 MIAA) will be back on the court at 7 p.m. Wednesday, hosting Rockhurst at White Auditorium.