The Wallace Community College Selma Lady Patriots were down early, and could not climb back into the match, as they lost 3-0 (17-25, 10-25, 20-25) at home to the Snead State Lady Parsons on Wednesday.

April Harper, head volleyball coach of Wallace Community College-Selma, said her team showed improvement on the night, but still has work to do after dropping to 1-4 in the Alabama Community College Conference with Wednesday’s home court loss.

“Tonight they played better as a unit. They’ve got to learn to trust one another, trust their teammates on the floor, communicate a little more and know that they can win,” Harper said. “But the hustle was there tonight, we just couldn’t cross the line.”

After dropping the first two sets in the match, the Lady Patriots tried to reverse their fortunes in the third set, as a kill from Wallace’s Ashley McGhee and mistakes from the Lady Parsons helped them build a 10-7 lead early in the set.

But Snead’s Bailey Gamble spiked the ball into the middle of the Lady Patriots defense, teammates Georgia Shelton and Chelsey Newton blocked another ball at the net, and Wallace hit another ball out to help Snead even the set up at 10-10.

The Lady Parsons took the momentum and went ahead 20-15.

The teams fought back and forth, as a pair of kills by McGhee, a service ace by teammate Tori Robinson and a block at the net by Wallace’s Africa Tyler helped the Lady Patriots narrow the Lady Parson’s lead to 24-20, but Newton ended the match by spiking the ball through Wallace’s back line.

Harper said her team knows what it’s capable of and knows what it needs to do, but the Lady Patriots have got to carry it over to the game.

“A lot of it is just going to have to be them trusting their teammate is going to get to the spot and cover what needs to be covered on the floor,” Harper said. “They just need to communicate more and a lot of it has to do with self-confidence. You’ve got to know that you can beat somebody. They know what to do, they just have to be able to implement it on the floor.”

Wallace returns to the court again Thursday in Bay Minette at 7 p.m. against Faulkner State.