Staff photo / Joe Simon Hubbard’s Emily Filicky, right, prepares to hit the ball against a pair of Lakeview defenders during their matchup Tuesday in Cortland.

CORTLAND — Two coaches leading young teams were hoping to find out a little bit about their groups in the first match of their volleyball seasons.

They couldn’t have learned much more.

Lakeview outlasted Hubbard in a tightly contested five-game battle at a sweltering hot Lakeview High School gymnasium. The Bulldogs won, 25-23, 17-25, 26-24, 17-25 and 15-9.

Lakeview, which has won back-to-back league titles, possesses a team with five of the six starters being sophomores. The Bulldogs have just two juniors and two seniors, so fifth-year coach Heather Guthrie was curious as to how her girls would look in the season opener.

“I definitely learned that they get way too tense, and when they play tense, they make silly, silly errors that I’ve never seen them make,” she said. “When they get tense, they make the silly errors, but that fifth set, I told them, ‘You can’t play tense. You have to play relaxed. We didn’t let them score 10 points, so (they did that).”

Lakeview’s focus seemed to shine through in the final set, which was surprising considering the Eagles were coming of a 25-17 win.

Yet the Bulldogs never trailed and were only tied once at 1-all. The few returning players for Lakeview, senior Anna Peterson and sophomore Maggie Pavlansky, made sure the team was locked in from the start.

“The third set kind of turns the entire game around, so if we were to lose that, we would’ve played even worse the fourth set,” Peterson said. “But, going into the fifth set, you really have to have that mentality that this is it, and if we don’t push here, there’s not another chance or another game to come back and win. It’s all about your attitude and your energy.”

The third set was a battle within the battle.

There were 12 ties and seven lead changes, but Hubbard appeared to be pulling away late with advantages of 22-18 and 23-20. Lakeview persevered and tied it once again at 23. The Bulldogs took the lead at 24-23 before Hubbard knotted it at 24.

Lakeview finally put it away by scoring the final two points for a critical 26-24 victory that gave the Bulldogs a 2-games-to-1 edge.

“It could’ve went either way,” said first-year Hubbard coach Ron Slipkasky, whose Eagles lost junior Haley Croyle, a regular starter, to an injury in pre-game warm-ups. “Both teams played their hearts out in a hot gym.

“… We made a lot of little errors,” he added. “Not being ready every time, not passing the ball perfect, and I think they out-hustled us the last game. They dug everything, and we had a few drop on our side.”

The gym was without air conditioning, and the heat may have taken a toll in the back-and-forth affair.

Guthrie said her girls should be used to it after practicing in heat throughout the summer (when they were allowed because of the pandemic).

“Because we practiced in it all summer, we’re so used to it, so it doesn’t (affect us),” Guthrie said. “When we go to air conditioning, we’re just in heaven.”

Hubbard left with some positives as well.

The Eagles were the model program in the Mahoning Valley for years but endured a tough stretch the last few seasons. Slipkasky, who coached at Niles the past six years, is trying to bring them back to the top.

He hopes Tuesday was a step in that direction. Hubbard battled back numerous times when it appeared the Bulldogs were ready to pull away.

“Especially the fourth game, we dug a lot of their good hits,” Slipkasky said. “We played almost perfect volleyball for a good portion of that match.”

The longtime mentor was once Guthrie’s coach in club volleyball. The two said it was definitely a friendly rival as Guthrie and Slipkasky are still good friends.

“It’s always fun to coach against your old coach because he taught me so much,” Guthrie said. “It’s nice to be able to see him as a coach now and not just as a player. He runs a good program. He’s all about fundamentals, and you can tell.”

“It was fun,” Slipkasky added. “She’s a good coach. She complimented me after the game tonight, too.”