Oak Creek — It was a new — and rather unwanted — position for the Soroco High School volleyball team. Outside a 2-1 loss to Gilpin County in the championship game of Gilpin’s own tournament, the Rams hadn’t faced much adversity through their 5-1 start to the season.

But after falling behind two sets to none against North Park on Friday in its home opener in Oak Creek, Soroco had to find a resolve it hadn’t needed before then.

“We’ve gotten behind, but we’ve always been able to come back from that,” Soroco volleyball coach Jeannie Jo Logan said. “This was the first time this year we started out rough like that, and it just really got to them, and they all admitted it in there. They start playing scared, and they start making mental error after mental error and didn’t play aggressive like they needed to.”

Soroco rallied back and saved their best effort for the third set, but eventually fell short in a 3-0 loss to North Park. Set scores were 25-14, 25-17, 29-27.

The Rams struggled out of the gate, falling behind, 8-2, in the first set en route to the 11-point set loss. The second set was better, but only slightly. They led early at 5-4, but found themselves trailing by as much as seven before cutting it to 17-15. North Park rolled from there for the 25-17 win.

“We just played sluggish, and we didn’t quite play as a team like we needed to,” Logan said. “It wasn’t what we wanted for the opener. And they are a much better team than this. They really are. We need to kind of get in that groove again.”

The third set was a back-and-forth thriller. Soroco had the advantage most of the way after jumping out to a 6-3 lead, but neither team could get any distance on the other down the stretch. The Rams held set point on two occasions, but couldn’t close the deal.

“In that third game, they started playing with confidence,” Logan said. “(North Park) is a good team. They were smart. They saw us scramble, they sent it over. You can’t discard them.”

North Park improved to 4-1 with the win. Soroco, 5-2, will have to regroup in a hurry. The Rams travel to De Beque Saturday afternoon.

To reach Austin Colbert, call 970-871-4204, email acolbert@SteamboatToday.com or follow him on Twitter @Austin_Colbert