ALAMEDA — In a four-set contest, the volleyball team lost its first Bay Valley Conference game of the season to the College of Alameda Cougars (1-8 overall, 1-1 BVC) here on Friday.

Contra Costa College (2-4 overall, 0-1 BVC) lost 3-1 to a Cougars squad that was winless coming into Friday’s match.

The Cougars previously lost to CCC Aug. 26 at the 8th Annual Cougar Classic Tournament.

The tide of the game turned in the third set.

After a competitive first half of the match, with the teams splitting the first two sets, the Cougars pounced on a Comet squad that was forced to play from behind in sets three and four.

“The team started off playing well but lost momentum as the game went on,”  Comet coach Christy Tianero said. “We take off good, then we crash. We don’t know how to land. We need to learn how to land.”

The volleyball team returns home tonight in a BVC match-up against College of Marin (4-6 overall, 0-1 BVC) at 6 p.m. in the Gym.

Outside hitter Justine Ayson said the team’s biggest problem was not hustling.

“We didn’t talk and just expected someone else to make the play,” Ayson said.

Early in the first set Comet outside hitter Victoria Matue (9 digs, 1 kill) left the game with an injured ankle.

“The setter set me farther out. I tried to hit it and I landed hard and rolled my ankle.” Matue came back into the game to start the second set.

She said when she came back her ankle was still hurting, but not bad enough that she couldn’t play through it.

Tianero said Matue covered the right side well with a lot of digs preventing the Cougars from scoring.

Delaine Baca also contributed defensively with 11 digs.

The Comets won the second set 25-16.

Middle blocker Makaya Thomas (9 kills, 2 blocks) was a key factor in the Comets’ lone victorious set. Tianero said Thomas played with a lot of energy on the floor and really helped the team with her blocks.

“I know Alameda switched up their sets because of Makaya’s play,” Tianero said.

The Cougars applied pressure in set three and four with various long scoring volleys. As the Comets performance slumped, so did their body language.

“In the third and fourth set we lost the spark of energy from the first two sets,” Thomas said.

Multiple scoring runs by Alameda in sets three and four prevented CCC from gaining momentum. In the third set, CCC gave up eight unanswered points to close out the set. Nine unanswered points were yielded by CCC in the fourth set, winning it 25-13.