LIZTON -- The woes continued for the South Putnam volleyball team on Thursday as the Eagles fell to Monrovia, 25-17, 25-14, 25-22 in the first round of the Class 2A Tri-West Sectional

LIZTON -- The woes continued for the South Putnam volleyball team on Thursday as the Eagles fell to Monrovia, 25-17, 25-14, 25-22 in the first round of the Class 2A Tri-West Sectional.

"It's the same story as it has been for us all year, our consistency was not there. We had some good plays, but they were too far and between for them to do us any good," SPHS coach Jill Newton said.

The Eagles struggled throughout the match with the Bulldogs. They were able to take the lead early in the first game, but soon gave it up to trail.

It was the same story in game two of the match. The Eagles, unable to pull an offense together, struggled with the Bulldog passing and net attacking, but the last game was something different.

The Eagles, for the first time in the match, were able to pull together and show Monrovia that they weren't going quietly.

C.J. Searles stepped up on the net for South Putnam's defense, picking up four blocks in the third game alone. Shelby Johnston backed her up, digging up anything the got past Searles and the rest of the blockers. The Eagles' offense wasn't able to score any big points, but their defense kept them in the game. The Eagles forced the Bulldogs to make error after error and for a short while it looked like South Putnam was going to force Monrovia into four or more games, but Monrovia was able to pull it back together for the win.

"The first two games we had trouble moving our feet, but in the third one were able to move our feet and get something to come together, it was just too late," Newton said.

Even though she lost in the first round of the sectional, Newton was still happy with the way her team turned out this season.

"We finally started to come together as team toward the end of the season and that's what we talked about in the beginning. We wanted to start to come together as team toward the end of the season and not peak in the middle then fall back down at the end," Newton said. "I have good group of girls and this whole year they came to practice ready to play and wanted to play hard all the time and that shows how much our program has grown in the past couple of years."

With the season over, Newton has already started to think about next year's season.

"We should have everybody back next year and that will make a difference with everyone being seasoned and having some varsity experience and plus I've got a real good group of eighth-graders coming up next year, so that should help us as well," Newton said.

Elizabeth Mink led the Eagles offense for the night with six kills while Shelby Johnston had three and Searles had one.

Searles led the defense with nine blocks while Mink had three. Johnston did her part defensively with 12 digs while Samantha Stanifer had 10 and Danielle McHugh had seven digs for the night.

The Eagles finished the season with a record of 6-21.

At Tri-West

Class 2A Sectional 45

Monrovia 25 25 25

South Putnam 17 14 22

South Putnam ended the 2005 season with a record of 6-21.