The Rugby High School volleyball team started slow but improved throughout the game in falling to North Star 3-0 in its first action of the 2013 season.

The Bearcats defeated the Panthers 25-8, 25-18, 25-19 in Cando on Sept. 3.

Head coach Jessica Fritz said the focus early in the season is improving from match to match and practice to practice.

“When we look at the overall picture, throughout the night we got better,” Fritz said. “Individually, each girl improved, and that’s the biggest part. We ask the girls to get a little bit better every day. If you don’t make a mistake you can’t learn anything. Early on, we made a lot of mistakes, but as long as you learn from them, you’re doing fine. No mistake is wasted.”

Cassandra Jaeger finished with seven kills to lead Rugby and Allison Volk added 12 assists.

“Some of those players that we expect to play well did,” Fritz said. “Allison (Volk) had a pretty solid game. Helen (Johnson) played well. When we could get our passes to Allie, Cassandra (Jaeger) hit the ball well.”

Elizabeth Blessum had a solid game from the service line with three aces.

The Panthers travel to Bottineau on Sept. 7 for a tournament, which should give the team plenty of opportunity to improve.

“We’ll play a lot of volleyball in a short amount of time,” Fritz said. “That’s always a good way to bring in different rotations and try different girls and different positions and see what works.”