Four of the five sets were decided by the closest possible margin of two points. The fifth set, meanwhile, was decided by just four.

At the thrilling end of the match, though, the Cardinals escaped the THS gymnasium with the victory and dropped to 1-1 on the season.

“It was a good home-opening match for us,” said Tiffany Parker, THS volleyball coach. “We fought back from deficits and proved to ourselves we can overcome them.”

Tonganoxie erased a six-point deficit in the first set and went on to win 25-23. In the second set, the teams were tied eight times. Eudora led, 24-21, but THS staved off set point three times and actually had a 25-24 lead before Eudora rattled off three points of its own and won, 27-25.

Eudora won the third set 25-21 before THS evened the match with a 27-25 victory in the fourth set.

The teams were tied at 11, 12 and 13 before the Cardinals scored back-to-back points for the 15-13 set victory.

THS junior Mykah Wingerter said her team came out and played hard against the visitors. She said the team can use the match as momentum even though it was a loss.

“We had a lot of energy considering the gym was kind of empty,” Wingerter said about the small crowd.

THS opened the season with a four-set victory against Turner last week in Kansas City, Kan. THS won 23-25, 25-16, 26-24, 26-24.

Tonganoxie played Tuesday at Atchison after The Mirror’s deadline and then travels Thursday to Baldwin to take on the Bulldogs. Junior varsity starts at 5 p.m. and varsity about 6 p.m. The freshman team is in a 5 p.m. triangular against Bishop Ward and Mill Valley in Shawnee.