Portales’ lack of floor experience showed during the Lady Rams home volleyball opener Tuesday night against Goddard, as the Lady Rockets won in three games 25-17, 25-22, 25-11.

“I thought we stayed with them pretty well,” Lady Ram head coach Ruth Chavez said. “The reason we lost is because of our errors — not that they did anything to us. We made a lot of hitting errors and some service errors there at the end.”

“We played pretty solid,” junior hitter Jenna Wagner said. “Our defense is getting really good. We had a couple of hitting errors that really threw us off and they got a run on us and we kind of let it slip away.”

The first game stayed close early on, as sophomore Gabby Garcia gave Portales a 14-13 lead with a service ace. The Lady Rockets then reeled off nine straight points, and 12 of the final 15 points, capped by a Tarrah Sweet service ace on game point.

The Lady Rams (5-7) quickly fell behind 8-4 in Game 2 before scoring 8 of the next 11 points, highlighted by three Wagner kills, to take their first lead of the game, 12-11. But Goddard took control, winning four points in a row en route to a 2-0 lead in games.

The Portales girls also stayed close in the third game, but Goddard (15-4) broke open an 11-10 lead by scoring 14 of the game’s final 15 points to clinch the match.

According to Chavez, the Lady Rams’ unforced errors were the story of the night.

“We are young and we’re going to make errors,” Chavez said. “We go back to the basic fundamentals and make sure that they’re doing what they’re supposed to be doing. That will correct the errors but it will take time.”

The Lady Rams host Roswell Tuesday night before traveling to Roswell for a re-match with Goddard on Sept. 30.

“Hitting the ball out and things like that will happen when you’re young,” Chavez said. “But we’ve got to fix them if we want to win.”