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The Lady Tigers rallied in all three games Thursday to pick up their first victory of the season, 26-24, 25-23, 25-21. CPS is now 1-3 in NCTL play while Peck fell to 0-4.

The same playing pattern occurred in all three games on Thursday night. The Lady Pirates would start fast, building leads to as many as eight points. Then, the Lady Tigers would catch up, stay even for a few points and pull it out at the end.

"The girls wanted it really bad. It was a win we needed to get," said Jen Abbott, CPS coach. She added that her team may have been a little too revved up early in each game. "(The girls) had to slow the ball down and play it on their side. We needed to calm down."

As important as the win was for CPS, it was as frustrating as possible for Peck. The Lady Pirates are winless, but have played well at times in all four matches.

"We'd be leading 15-7 or so," said Coach Trisha Bussey on the loss to CPS. Then, they'd have six or seven serves in a row. We just fell apart every single time. We should have had all three games."

Some solid movement of the ball, centered around Jordan Alexander, the team's only senior, helped get the Lady Tigers away from their slow starts.

"We've been working on passing quite a bit in practice. We knew it was a weak point," explained Abbott. "But, we've definitely improved. It helped a lot (Thursday night)." On Alexander, she said, "She covers the floor . She's a nice overall player. The girls look to her, maybe too much."

Junior Amanda Maher led a sound serving game for CPS with 12 points and three aces. Junior Nicole Storm, who had a kill to end game two, finished with eight points and four kills while Melissa Fraser had eight points and three assists, and Dawn Albrecht chipped in with four points and five blocks.

For Peck, Savannah Wilcox and Mary Snider led the way. Wilcox totaled five digs, three kills, 10 service points and two aces while Snider had three kills, six blocks, five points, and three aces. Sarah Long led in kills with six and also had 10 points with six aces.

Dryden 25, 25, 25 CPS 15, 21, 17

The Lady Tigers came up short in Tuesday's NCTL South match against Dryden (3-1). Storm had 11 points and five aces and Fraser added 10 points.