Just two days after suffering its first volleyball loss of the season at Apex High, Green Hope High fell to Cary High 3-1 on Thursday night.

The loss dropped the Falcons, the reigning Tri-Seven Conference champions, to 7-2 overall and 2-2 in the conference standings.

But despite the consecutive conference losses, coach George Tsai is confident the team can get back to winning soon.

“We need to continue to play teams like this and continue to work with these girls to get comfortable with each other,” Tsai said. “We’re competing to try to win the Tri-Eight.”

Asked if the Falcons could repeat as conference champs Tsai said: “Definitely.”

But saying and doing are two different things. Green Hope struggled returning serves at times in the match and appeared to have problems deciding who was going to take certain shots.

Sophomore libero Sarah Forgacs said to start winning again the team has some problems to fix.

“We’ve got to work on passing and communicating more,” Forgacs said. “We had a spurt in the game where we weren’t calling the ball and we didn’t know where each other were on the court.”

Forgacs added, though, losing two straight games is motivation for the team.

“This was definitely a wake up call for us,” she said. “We’re definitely going to come back.”

Forgacs also provided one of the bright spots in the match for the Falcons, as she made a diving play to keep Game 3 alive.

With the score tied at 24 and Cary up two games to none, Forgacs dove head first toward the bleachers and somehow hit the ball one-handed to a teammate, who put the ball over the net. Green Hope got the point and went on to win the third game, briefly swinging the momentum in its favor.

“I was just thinking about getting the ball up,” Forgacs said. “I wanted to keep my team in this game. I wasn’t going to let it hit the ground, because I knew if it did then bad stuff would happen.”

Senior captain Dana Senko said the play energized the team to take Game 3.

“I always knew that we could win this game,” Senko said. “[Sarah’s play] just gave a little bit of fire power to everybody and we pulled together and pulled out that game.”

All four games in the match were competitive — the last three decided by a total of six points — and both teams had their chances. But according to Senko, Green Hope lacks team unity, which hurts in close games.

“We need to pull together as a team when we’re down and pick each other up,” Senko said. “Right now we’re playing more as individual players than as a whole team. I truly believe we can beat whoever we play if we play as a team. But we’re just not playing as a team.”

Tsai agreed.

“We have to be more committed,” he said. “Our girls have to get along and get comfortable with each other. Right now our rhythm is on and off. Once we get that rhythm smooth, we’ll be OK.”

One uncontrollable obstacle preventing the Falcons from being a complete team is injuries. Sophomore and starting outside hitter/setter Jennifer Hindman is out with a broken wrist and does not plan to return anytime soon, which is a major blow.

On the flip side, Cary picked up its second win in a row and improved to 2-2 in the conference. Coach Phillip Goodloe said it was an important win for his team, given the strength of the Green Hope volleyball program.

“It’s a big win considering I have almost the entire team back from last year that got smacked around by Green Hope,” Goodloe said. “Green Hope was very good last year. They lost some players and I lucked out and I didn’t. “If we stay mentally tough we can play with anyone in the county.”

Senko concurred that Green Hope’s inexperience played a role in its recent losses, but as the senior captain, she feels responsible to make sure the underclassmen forget and move on with the season.

“We have a very young team and I try to do the best I can and the girls who are returning try to do the best they can to try and get people motivated,” Senko said. “But these last two games we had no intensity. I can’t really say why we didn’t, but we just didn’t seem to get going.

“But you have to forget about it and get to the next game.”