Red Mountain's volleyball team visited No. 8 and undefeated Basha Tuesday looking for a win but left with its third straight loss and a lesson.

The Mountain Lions are learning to focus on their strategy and play their own game

“Next match I think we need to learn to utilize our communication in those situations less needed,” junior Makenna Fullford said. “And learn to be the bigger team and compete at our own level instead of going down to the other team’s level.”

Red Mountain started off hot in the beginning of each set, but cooled down , never making it past 15 points in losing all three sets. The Mountain Lions struggled reading the Basha offense, which led to miscommunication in the back row.

“We didn’t know if it was going to be a tip or a swing,” said senior Jen Vesco. “We’ll be thinking it’s a tip since they were tipping the last three balls, so we’d stay short and their offense would come up swinging.”

Added Makenna: “We’ve been playing a lot of hard teams lately. But when we play teams that we feel confident that we can beat them, our communication goes down and we don’t try as hard.”

Senior Kayla Subbert remains confident.

“We know we can actually put up a fight,” Subbert said. “We push hard and work well as a team.”

The Mountain Lions ace North High School Wednesday at 6 p.m.