It wasn’t a surprise to the Cary High volleyball team that Broughton would provide it the stiffest competition of the early season. After cruising to a 4-0 start to the season, the Imps got somewhat of a wakeup call from the Caps in Raleigh Wednesday evening, as the Imps fell in three straight games and suffered its first loss of the year.

“We already knew that the game was going to be tough,” said Cary’s Alie Endres. “Broughton was our first actual competition, so we knew that we would have to play our hardest.”

The Imps got out to an early 3-0 lead in the first game behind the serving of Caroline Salevan. Cary held on to its lead until Broughton took over 10-9 on a service error from Endres. And though the Imps kept the game competitive, Broughton held on for a 25-19 win in the first game.

Cary came out strong in the second game, which was the closest of the three. But when the Caps again held on for a close 25-20 win, the Imps’ confidence began to suffer going into the third game. As a result, Broughton handled Cary 25-15 in a lopsided third game.

“We played better than we expected, but in the second and third game we just kept getting harder and harder on ourselves for making mistakes,” Salevan said. “Overall for the team, the competition was a lot different than in the first four games. We came out strong, but we didn’t finish as well as we thought we would.”

Salvevan said communication was the main problem plaguing the Imps in the loss, particularly in the decisive third game.

“In the last game there was [no communication],” Salavan said. “We were letting balls drop that we shouldn’t have. We’ve just got to come together as a family and talk.”

Cary coach Philip Goodloe said the Imps ran into an opponent that wasn’t that much more skilled than his team but was simply more experienced.

Though it may not have been evident in the Imps’ first four wins, the team is still adjusting to several new faces and a lack of experience playing together.

“It’s a rebuilding,” said Goodloe. “I’ve got a couple girls coming from Cardinal Gibbons. I’ve got a girl from Cary Academy. I’ve got JV players trying to play with returning varsity players. I’ve got four different schools of thought coming in, and it’s hard to get them to gel together. But it will happen.”

Despite the loss, the Imps did several things well in the match. The team’s hustle and energy remained consistently high throughout all three games. If the team can continue to serve as effectively as it did against the Caps (10 aces in the match) and improve its communication, there is no reason to believe the team will not continue its winning ways from a season ago.

“When we get our serves in, we play really well,” said Goodloe. “Serves and communication and we’ve got it.”

And though the feeling of losing is new for the Imps this season, it may have been the best thing for the team heading into conference play, beginning with Lee County on Thursday.

“It’s good to face a better nonconference team,” said Goodloe. “We could be 0-5 right now and it wouldn’t affect us going into State’s, because it’s all conference. But this is a good warm-up for Lee County.”