A strong Rosewood team proved too much for the visiting Union Spartans Monday afternoon, with both the JV and varsity getting swept — the JV 2-0 and the varsity 3-0.

“We just didn’t play well at all,” said coach Dana Strickland. “It just went from bad to worse.”

The JV, she said, actually started off strong, climbing to a 9-point lead. “I was just extremely proud of the way they were playing at that point.”

But then some things went wrong, the Spartans lost their lead and, along with it, the desire to win.

“They just quit; that’s all there is to it, they gave up,” a disappointed Strickland said.

Rosewood defeated the young Spartans 25-20, 11-25.

Strickland said come Wednesday, when the girls return to practice, they’ll be able to work on many of the things she believes can be improved about the squad. “We’ve had five days of games in a row. We’ll get it all worked out when we return to practice.”

While the JV gave up too soon in its match, the varsity never quit, Strickland pointed out. “They played hard right until the end, and that was something I was pleased to see, something I was proud of, too.”

But the Spartans simply were no match for the taller and more athletic Rosewood team.

“We were playing a whole lot of defense,” Strickland stressed.

The varsity lost in three, 25-12, 25-9 and 25-19.

“We are still a very inexperienced team. A lot of our upperclassmen have not had a lot of playing time. I believe they’ll get better.”

In fact, Strickland said, she’d seen some individual improvements already, although there wasn’t much of that in the game against Rosewood.

“We simply didn’t play as a team the way we did last week in the three games we had, but still, these girls never quit playing tonight (Monday). I really believe they were tyring as hard as they could.”

The coach said she also believed the Lady Spartans were a little intimidated by the tougher Rosewood team. “They were really hitting hard, and our blocking hurt us.” We’ll get better. We’ve just got to get into practice and work really hard.”

The Spartans return to the court Tuesday when the varsity plays host to East Bladen. Game time 5 p.m.

The first conference game is next Tuesday, when Union travels to James Kenan.