COVINGTON, Ga. — The Eastside High School volleyball team continued its recent slide Monday night as the Lady Eagles dropped a 3-1 match to Region 8-AAAAA foe Apalachee on their home court.

The setback came on the heels of three straight shutout losses to Loganville, Jackson County and Prince Avenue Christian. But despite the final result, interim head coach Ashley Carnes believes her club might’ve turned the corner against Apalachee.

“Honestly, the girls played better [Monday night] than they have in the last three to four weeks,” Carnes said. “They came together as a team. They worked hard together, they hustled, they went for every single ball. I couldn’t be more proud.”

The opening set of the night belonged solely to the visiting Lady Wildcats. After jumping out to an early 8-3 advantage, they went on an 11-3 run to build a seemingly insurmountable lead. A late surge from Eastside appeared to be in the works, but Apalachee ultimately held on for the 25-12 win.

Eastside came out with a strong response in the second set. After scoring the first three points, the Lady Eagles continued their attack as they established a 14-10 lead. Apalachee would stick around and tie the score at 20-all, but Eastside hunkered down and closed set with five unanswered points to earn the 25-20 victory.

Apalachee took the third set in convincing fashion, 25-13, but a hard-fought effort from Eastside resulted in a 25-21 defeat in the match-deciding fourth set.

Eastside will travel to Walnut Grove this Wednesday, Oct. 1, before closing out the regular season with a pair of region matches at home against Greenbrier (Tuesday, Oct. 6) and Johnson (Thursday, Oct. 8).

With the region tournament scheduled to begin Oct. 13, the Lady Eagles will look to polish up their product over the next three games while preparing for a postseason run.

“If we continue to do what we’re doing, I think that we can continue and go far,” Carnes said. “But it will all depend on how we show up and play.”