PHOTO BY RICHARD AKRIDGE Sophomore Hadley Brown prepares to bump the ball. The Lady Badgers need to find their focus.

After posting the biggest win in first-year head coach Beth Rutland's short career a little over a week ago against Rogers, the team has struggled with consistency on the court. The result is a pair of losses.

Lampasas fell against the same Rogers team in five sets last Friday and then traveled to Belton, where it suffered a four-set defeat (11-25, 25-16, 21-25, 17-25) Tuesday.

"[We're] just hot and cold," Rutland said. "I thought [in] the second game everything was back on track, and then they just went into a tough mental stretch.

"That's something we've definitely got to spend some time on before Llano. We've got to get mentally checked back in."

Lampasas travels to Llano tonight for a 6:30 p.m. start. Earlier in the season, Llano posted a straight-set win over the Lady Badgers inside Bozarth-Fowler Gymnasium.

"My main focus is for us to come in not intimidated," Rutland said. "We know kind of what they are going to do, and we've grown up since then."

The Lady Badgers won five matches after the loss to Llano, including the big win over Rogers at home.

Nevertheless, Lampasas (8-11 overall) must improve its play.

Belton easily took the first set Tuesday evening before the Lady Badgers showed signs of life in the second set, when they built a 23-12 lead before allowing Belton to string together a few points. It was not enough, however, and Lampasas won 25-16.

The competitiveness carried over into the third set for both squads, and the Lady Tigers squeaked out a four-point win at 25-21.

In the final set, Lampasas was cold in the beginning, giving up six consecutive points as Belton built a 13-7 advantage en route to a 25-17 victory.

The road team struggled all night with its accuracy in both hitting and serving.

The Lampasas subvarsities did not have the same problems, as both teams walked out of Belton's gym with wins.

The freshman team won in three sets (21-25, 25-17, 25-13), and the junior varsity claimed a straight-set win by a score of 25-21, 25-18.

Both subvarsity squads begin play this evening at 5 p.m.