The O’Neal volleyball team suffered its first loss of the season Tuesday in a five-game match at Fayetteville Academy.

Fayetteville won the Cape Fear Independent Conference contest by 25-20, 24-26, 19-25, 25-20 and 15-11 scores.

“We have a tough volleyball conference,” said Falcon coach Kendall Harper. “We made too many simple errors. Simple errors come with the territory of having a young team, but they are correctable.”

Katja Ehlers lead the team with 23 kills, adding 15 digs and three service aces for the Falcons.

Also for the Falcons, Scottie McGowan produced 29 assists. Taylor Shelton had five kills, three blocks, 10 digs and three service errors. Kelly Griffin had 14 digs and Teresa Donna had 12 digs and three service aces.

The Falcons, now 6-1 overall and 2-1 in the conference, face defending state champion St. David’s today (Thursday) in a home match that starts at 5 p.m.

The Falcons junior varsity team came out a little slow to start its match against Fayetteville Academy but turned it on to win the first set 25-14 behind some clutch serving by Emma Furstein. In a run of 13 consecutive service points, she racked up three aces. Alyssa Pearson added three kills during the run.

The second set went back and forth with the Falcons fighting for the victory with a 27-25 win. Sarah D’Annunzio had two kills and Furstein added two more. Lindsay Vest had a strong passing and digging match along with Emma Wilkinson. Karlie Tighe and D’Annunzio added two aces each in the second set. The jayvee team is now 5-2 overall and moves to 3-0 in conference play.