Dallas County’s five set victory over Selma was a roller coaster ride for both teams, with the Hornets on the verge of a dominating win before a tremendous comeback from the Saints.

After blowing a 2-0 lead, the Hornets were able to push through a mistake-filled third and fourth set to dominate the match deciding fifth set 15-5.

“We just have to learn to finish games. Here again, we get relaxed when we are up instead of keeping the tempo up and finishing the game,” Hornets head coach Linda Moore said. “We just got too relaxed again. Our motto for the year is finish, finish, finish.”

The Hornets nearly made it a quick night. After winning the first two sets 25-19 and 25-18, it appeared Dallas County was on the cusp of sweeping the match. After building a 24-18 lead in the third set, the Hornets were one point away from picking up a win.

The Saints wouldn’t be denied though, pulling off an incredible comeback to send the home crowd into a frenzy. Selma won the third set 27-25, scoring nine of the final ten points.

Selma rode the momentum from the third set to a 25-23 win in the fourth set, as the Hornets were again unable to finish off the match.

Dallas County rebounded quickly to take full control of the fifth set, which was a one-sided 15-5 Hornets win to claim the match. Moore said her team’s spot-on serving was the difference in the final set.

“We have a really good serving team,” Moore said. “We just have to continue to believe in ourselves and believe that if we continue to work hard, we will be able to learn to finish the game.”

Despite the loss, Selma head coach Melissa White was proud of how her team fought back, but like Moore, she said her team “didn’t have that killer instinct to finish” the fifth set. However, she was proud of the way the Saints rallied from a big hole to force the match to a fifth set.

“They communicated a little bit more and they cut down more on their errors as opposed to the first and second,” White said. “We had a lot of service errors that first set that dug us a hole. The second set, the same thing. Once we cut down on our errors we were able to compete.”