The Pike Patriots Lady Volleyball team struggled in the home opener on Tuesday, losing to Crenshaw.

The Patriots won an emotional first set 24-22 but then fell in the remaining three 25-27, 16-25 and 16-25.

“We have some areas we need to work on,” said Patriots head coach Jacqui Wynn. “We have to get better at controlling and finishing at the end. Overall I am proud of them. They had good benefits tonight.”

The Patriots theme this season is a stoplight, and their focus is “staying in the green.” They weren’t there on Tuesday, Wynn said.

“We have to get out of heads. We can’t make one mistake and then lose,” Wynn said. “We have to stay in the green. We have to control the controllable and stay in the green as much as you can. Once you get in the red, you lose traction and a lot of our girls dropped to the red.”

The Patriots had control of the first set, in part because of their energy.

“In game one they were super excited to come and play in front of their home crowd,” Wynn said. “You always are for your first game.”

In games two, three and four the Patriots played from behind early and often.

“We got nervous,” Wynn said. “We are a young team with a lot of young players. We are going to figure it out. We will put it all together.”

Earlier on Tuesday, the JV team defeated Crenshaw in straight sets.

“They looked great,” Wynn said. “They played together as a team. They worked really hard. They had a few bumps in the road, but they were more than willing to come back and get the job done.”

The Patriots host Lee Scott at 4 p.m. on Tuesday.

“We have to work together and figure it out,” Wynn said. “They have had good practices and moments. Now if we can just put all of our sets together we can win.”