Eisenhower’s Caroline Smyth, left, and Layla Edwards go up for a block in Tuesday’s volleyball match against Mercyhurst Prep. Times Observer Photo by Steve Younger

District 10 semifinalist Mercyhurst Prep visited Eisenhower for a girls volleyball match on Tuesday.

Lakers head coach Joe Reynolds was impressed.

“Eisenhower has a lot of athletes,” he said. “They are certainly better than last year, and are a relatively young team. They will only get better.”

For the record, the Knights lost 25-12, 25-21, 24-18, but first-year head coach Lori Pascuzzi was pleased with her team’s effort.

“I thought our serving was good,” she said. “We want to have a 90 percent and we had an 87 percent, which was actually 13 percent higher than (Mercyhurst Prep) had.

“Overall, I thought we had good serve reception all three games. They are a tough team and our girls hung with them all night.”

In the first game, the Lakers jumped out to a 7-1 lead and were never threatened. Layla Edwards had three service points for Eisenhower.

The second game was a different story as the lead by either team never got beyond four points. In fact, the Lady Knights led at one point 10-8, but the Lakers rallied and held off the hosts. Eisenhower’s Edwards had another strong serving game, while teammates Emilie Jones and Caroline Smyth were effective at the net.

Finally, in the third game, the Lady Knights led by as much as 8-5. After that, the lead changed hands five different times before the Lakers ultimately prevailed.