The Charles Henderson volleyball team’s record now sits at .500, this after the Trojans fell in five games Tuesday to Carroll by scores of 26-24, 25-13, 25-27, 21-25 and 15-3.

The win for Carroll gave the Eagles a split of the season series with CHHS (11-5, 3-3), something CHHS head coach Jennifer Sikes may have been due to overconfidence stemming from the two teams’ last meeting.

“I think our biggest problem was we were expecting the same team we played earlier at Carroll,” Sikes said. “They have very much improved.”

The Eagles jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the match, winning the first game in extra points before blowing the Trojans away in the second game.

With their backs against the wall, the Trojans were able to respond in the third game, winning in extra points. Carroll actually led 25-24, but CHHS scored the final three points of the game to take the 27-25 win.

The fourth game would end on a Trojan run as well, with CHHS scoring the final four points to pick up the 25-21 win.

The win forced a fifth, and decisive, game.

Unfortunately for CHHS, the Trojans were blown away 15-3.

“I’m not real sure what happened in that fifth game,” Sikes said. “We weren’t really awake then, and we fell off. We got down and just couldn’t recover.”

The loss was the third straight for CHHS, something Sikes said is a negative sign heading into next week’s area tournament.

“We’re just in a slump right this minute,” Sikes said. “The girls aren’t where they want to be going into the area tournament. I hope this is a wakeup call that we’ve got to play every play to the best of our ability. We’ve got to work hard to make every play ours instead of giving up every other ball.”

Sikes said the Trojans must focus on improving their fundamentals in the days leading up to the area tournament.

“We’ve got to work on our basic game,” Sikes said. “ Every time we were bumping, setting and spiking and putting the ball in the back row like we’ve worked on, we made that point. But then, we’d give up a point because we wouldn’t do the fundamentals and the basics. That’s what we’ve got to have. We’ve got to get back to basics and get back to how we were playing at the beginning of the season.”

CHHS will have one last chance to improve before the area tournament when it travels to Dothan for a match against Northview Monday.

Area tournament play begins for the Trojans Tuesday at 9 a.m. in Rehobeth.