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The five-seeded Purple Riders fell to Coshocton in a three-set sweep- 25-14, 25-22 25-8. Martins Ferry held as much as a six-point lead in the second set, but Coshocton roared back late to take the second set, one that proved to be a backbreaker for the Purple Riders.

“Game one, we had to wake up. Game two, that’s how we know how to play,” Koller said. “I really don’t know what happened in game three. They’re teenage girls, there’s a lot of emotions. You’re on or you’re off, it’s the mental game, and I think that’s what it was, because we played our game in game two.”

In the first game, Coshocton piled a 8-0 lead as Martins Ferry worked through some early errors. Maddie Lucas first got Martins Ferry on the board with a kill, but Coshocton’s pin-point strikes kept them comfortably ahead the duration of the set.

Martins Ferry scored first in the second set, and built a 9-3 lead when Coshocton called timeout. Out of the break, Coshocton mounted a 10-4 run to tie the set 13-13.

The set swung back and forth from there, neither team’s lead exceeding two points until the final volley. Giana Chirpas made plays late in the set, smashing a kill to tie the game at 21-21 and putting down a block to tie the game 22-22, but a Martins Ferry error gave the set to Coshocton 25-22.

The third set started with a big block by Coshocton’s Sophia McFadden as the two seed rolled into the third set with authority, building an 11-3 lead before Ferry called a timeout. The stoppage could not slow down a Coshocton attack that was surgical in their strikes. Numerous times throughout Monday the Purple Riders recoiled from a Coshocton kill that neared the boundary line, only for the shot to narrowly land in-bounds.

A Lindsey Best kill trimmed the score to 13-5 Coshocton, but the lead ballooned to 10 at 16-6 and only grew from there.

Martins Ferry will say farewell to four seniors- Best, Tessa Guthrie, Kendall Wilson, and Lydia Masters. The Riders are a young team that returns five of their six regular starters.

“We are young,” Koller said. “I play with two freshmen, one senior and the rest are sophomores. What they’ve done and where they’ve come from, I couldn’t ask for anything more. There’s a couple games that you sit back and you say ‘we could’ve beat them, we should’ve beat them,’ but it is what it is, we learn from wins and we learn from losses. We’re growing. I’m fine with this season.”