Acalanes outscored Castro Valley 110-104 across five sets on Thursday, Sept. 17, and still lost.

The Lafayette school's girls volleyball team dropped a 3-2 heartbreaker at home to the Trojans after winning the total-points battle but losing three of five sets. The defeat came two days after the Dons picked up a 3-1 road victory at Piedmont on Tuesday, Sept. 15, giving the squad a split week.

Against Castro Valley, Acalanes cruised through the first set 25-15 before the match turned into a marathon. The Dons fell behind 0-4 in Set 2, clawed back to tie at 20, then dropped it 23-25.

Set 3 followed a similar script. Acalanes trailed 12-16 before senior outside hitter Ella Chong's serving erased the deficit and tied things at 16, according to the Acalanes Boosters Club recap, corroborated by a MaxPreps recap. Harper Fox delivered a crucial kill, Fran Barbano's serving kept Castro Valley off balance, and senior middle hitter Sydney Scovic and Chong landed big kills late as the Dons took the set 26-24.

Acalanes fell behind again in Set 4, trailing 7-14. Chong's serving pulled the Dons within one at 18-19. Meher Jeyakrishnan contributed strong serves to keep Acalanes alive, but the Trojans closed it out 25-23.

The fifth set went to 15. Acalanes fell behind 1-3 early and could never erase the gap, losing 13-15.

At Piedmont, the Dons won 3-1 despite what the booster account called a "terrible" second set. Scovic recorded most of the team's blocks at the net, though the secondhand account left some uncertainty about whether a few belonged to teammate Quinn Frontiera instead. Devyn Murphy contributed strong hits and recoveries. Barbano and a teammate named Camille both served well.

"They had to try really hard to win this game," Kelly, who attended the Piedmont match, said in the booster club writeup. "I think they're going to have to be super scrappy the rest of the year."

Acalanes entered the week at 2-8 for the season, according to MaxPreps, with wins over Miramonte and Northgate in an Aug. 29 tournament. The Piedmont win was the team's third victory of the year, and the Castro Valley loss dropped the Dons to 3-9.

Both teams open conference play this week. Acalanes plays College Park at 7 p.m. Tuesday, while Castro Valley faces Alameda at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, according to MaxPreps.