Whitney Floyd gets one of two stuff blocks against the Warriors of Del Norte in Tuesday night’s matchup. The Pilot/Jef Hatch

The Bruins jumped to a commanding 10-1 lead on a series of strong serves and Warrior miscues in the first game before a series of mental mistakes by the Bruins brought their opponents back into contention at 12-11.

The Lady Bruins regained their composure to take a 18-11 lead before allowing the Lady Warriors back in to the game for the win, 21-25.

“We had moments there where we had rallies going,” Head Coach Lori Cooper said. “But we just couldn’t keep the energy levels up.”

The second game saw the Bruins start slow before making it into a contest. They took a short-lived lead late in the game just before the Lady Warriors blocked a Whitney Floyd spike to win the game, 23-25.

The third game found a demoralized Bruin squad who just couldn’t get a string of quality hits together long enough to count.

The Warriors took an early lead and didn’t relent, defeating the Bruins 18-25.

“It’s a game of momentum,” Cooper said at the end of the final match. “We’ve got to get after it and keep playing hard. I expect them to keep getting better.”

Floyd had 11 kills, seven digs and two stuff blocks. Teammate Christy Reynolds added six kills to try and keep the Lady Bruins competitive.

The JV squad was able to succeed where the varsity could not, defeating the Del Norte JV in two straight games.

Bruins reach quarterfinals at Arcata Invitational

The Lady Bruins claimed a record of 2-1 in pool play on Saturday at the Arcata Invitational Tournament to advance to the quarterfinal rounds of the 16-team tournament, where they lost to Eureka.

The Bruins defeated Etna 25-19, 25-18; and St. Bernard’s 25-21, 25-20 in pool play before losing their first match to Fortuna 17-25, 16-25.

“I think we could have beat Fortuna in pool play if we weren’t so sluggish,” Cooper said. “I was really pleased that we made the championship bracket.”

The Bruins lost their quarterfinal matchup 14-25, 22-25 to Eureka, one of the teams to beat in the tournament.

“One coach told us that Eureka, Yreka and Brookings were the teams to beat in this tournament,” Cooper explained. “I don’t know if they were basing their information on our current play or on the fact that we won the tournament the last two years that we’ve attended.”