Streator senior libero Maiya Lansford shook her head in bewilderment before answering the question about the Bulldogs serve receive in the opening set of Tuesday’s Illinois Central Eight Conference match with Lisle at Pops Dale Gymnasium.

“Oh yeah, we struggled at the start for sure,” Lansford said. “It wasn’t very good.”

Streator (10-5, 4-2) however found a way to overcome the miscues, grabbed the momentum and carried it over into a strong second set to post a 25-23, 25-19 victory over the Lions (7-11, 1-4).

Lisle laced four aces and kept the hosts out of system with strong serves to hold a 17-12 first set lead.

“Serve receive is probably the aspect we have struggled the most in this season,” Lansford said. “We work on it all the time in practice, but to be honest, I feel like it’s more of a mental thing than a physical or talent thing. We get into our own heads too easy at times. I’m guilty, especially being a libero, of sometimes letting one bad pass getting me out of sync.

“(Streator) coach (Julie) Gabehart is always talking about having a ‘goldfish memory’ and letting the last point go and move on. I felt like we kind of just survived the first set and then after talking things out before the second, really came out playing much better.”

Streator used a side out kill by Malea Zavada and a three-point service run by Alexa Barr to close to within 19-17. Then aces by Aubrey Jacobs and Caitlyn Talty, two kills from Kinslee Sweeden and another by Sophia Snow helped closed out the set.

“Our serving is a strength of this team and it’s something we focus on and work on a lot,” Lisle coach Payton Litney said. “I though we served very well tonight. But sometimes in volleyball you can serve well with a few aces mixed in and you look at the scoreboard and your lead isn’t as much as you’d think it should be. Part of that tonight in the first set was that we had a few too many hitting errors (8) and a couple of serving errors that kept things close.

“I felt like Streator really picked up its energy toward the later points in the first set and then was able to carry it over into the second.”

Streator jumped out to leads of 5-0 (including two aces by Sweeden) and 15-7 (after a kill by Barr and block by Jacobs). The Lions were able to close to within 22-17 on a pair of kills by Sophia Harer and an ace by Kendall Kolff, but a service error, two hitting errors and a kill by Zavada on match point ended the night.

“I know we are well into this season, but I feel, because of the injuries we’ve had, we’re still trying to find and get comfortable in certain rotations and lineups,” Litney said. “We’ll get there because these girls have a lot of fight in them.”

Sweeden (seven service points, two aces), Jacobs (three blocks, two aces) and Zavada all finished with four kills each for the Bulldogs.

Harer registered a match-best five kills, with three aces and five points to lead Lisle. Kolff (six points, two aces) and Brooklyn Burton each added three kills, while Emily Staley had a pair of blocks.

“We went from everyone not wanting the ball, to everyone wanting the ball to be hit their way,” Lansford said. “This is a mental game, and we collectively just have to keep working on being stronger and tougher.”

Streator is back in action on Wednesday hosting Seneca. Lisle returns to its home court on Thursday against ICE opponent Reed-Custer.