Carly Purdy had 17 kills and Kenzie Polk and Sedina Hayes combined for seven aces, but it wasn’t enough as the North Platte volleyball team lost to Aurora 25-18, 25-21, 25-23 at home on Thursday.

“When you have one hitter that’s on, that’s who you have to go to,” North Platte coach Clancy Hammond said of Purdy. “I don’t want to use her as much as we do because I’d like to save her a little bit. She’s really healthy right now and we want to keep her that way.”

A couple of those mistakes were there in the first set, when North Platte couldn’t build off an early lead against Aurora. The Bulldogs had an early 6-3 lead almost squandered in part due to a miscommunication where no one went for an attack off a bump.

Everytime North Platte built a three-point lead, like when it was up 9-6, Aurora found a way back. The Huskies pulled to within one at 10-9, and then secured a lead at 13-12.

Aurora then went on a 7-1 run to go up 21-13 and closed out the set 25-18.

“We had moments of energy ... we have a hard time getting energy and keeping it,” Hammond said. “I think there were moments we looked like the better team out there, and then other times we made some really, really immature mistakes. Those are things we worked on all season.”

Neither team gained an edge over the other in the second set, with neither team taking more than a two point lead early. Aurora took a 17-13 lead off another North Platte miscommunication, but the Bulldogs closed the gap and tied the game at 19-19 and later at 21-21. Aurora, though, scored the next four points to win the set.

The Bulldogs were flat to start the third set, quickly trailing 7-0. North Platte made small comebacks throughout the set, even getting to within three points at 11-8, but Aurora went on another run to extend its lead to 14-8.

North Platte turned to its power hitter in Purdy, who notched four of the next seven points to pull the Bulldogs to within one point at 15-14. The Bulldogs remained within a point or two of Aurora until tying the set at 21-21 and taking the lead on a Polk ace the next play.

After Aurora tied the game, Purdy gave North Platte another lead with another kill, but the Huskies scored the final three points of the match to close the third set 25-23.

“They really get to where if one mistake happens, they dwell on it too long, and they can’t move on,” Hammond said.

Hammond did praise one player’s ability to overcome those mistakes and play a good game.

“I think tonight, Hallie Hamilton did a really good job,” Hammond said. “Early on, she made a couple tiny mistakes, tiny errors. And she turned it around. She came out, and she played really well in the back row for us tonight, and that was something we really worked on with her moving on from a mistake, and she did that tonight.”

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