Hobbton’s girls had their moments in their volleyball match with Pender Thursday, but there weren’t enough of them for the Lady ‘Cats — JV nor varsity — to get the wins.

The JV lost 13-25, 19-25. The varsity, however, held on for five sets, but lost 11-25; 5-25; 25-23; 25-21; 4-15.

Hobbton coach Russell Jones said the JV still had work to do as they learned volleyball skill sets. He particularly pointed to serving, noting that was one area that continued to cause them trouble.

“Take today (Thursday). We’d get one or two points and then put one in the net, then Pender would get five or six. Pretty soon they’ve got a nice lead and then the win.”

Jones said the JV played with the Patriots for a while, “but the serve caught up with us.”

For the JV, Melissa Gallegos had 1 assist; Samantha Monk, 1 assist; Kaley Matthews, 5 aces, 4 kills; and Reece Holland, 1 assist.

In the varsity game, Jones said the Lady Wildcats had their moments. “We can play good at times, but we just can’t seem to do it for a while game. We’ll get on a roll, then a couple things will happen and it just stops. Then it seems we wait for something else good to happen before we get on a roll again. We just cannot seem to put it together,” Jones said.

For the varsity, Taylor Bowden had 2 aces, 2 kills and 18 assists, Marcie McLamb, 3 kills, 1 assist; Casey Hobbs, 9 kills, 1 assit, 2 blocks; Michaela Wilson, 4 aces, 7 kills, 1 assist; McKenna Smith, 7 kills, 2 assists, 1 block; and RayAnn Eldridge, 2 aces.

Hobbton’s varsity moves to 7-7 overall and 2-6 in the conference. The JV is 2-12 overall and 0-8 in the conference.

They travel to James Kenan Tuesday for a game against the Tigers. Game time is 4:30 p.m.