PITTSBURG -- Fort Scott High's volleyball team continues to play some really close games early in the season. The Tigers had a couple of more in a split with Pittsburg Colgan and Chanute at the St. Mary's-Colgan Fieldhouse here Tuesday night.

The Tigers lost to Southeast Kansas League for Chanute in a non-league match, 28-26, 25-16. They came back to beat Colgan in three games, 10-25, 25-15, 26-24.

In the 12 games the Tigers have played in their five matches, six of them have been settled by three points or less.

"We played well in the first game (vs. Chanute)," Fort Scott head coach Carol Bingesser said. "But we got smoked in the second. Chanute was a really good team, good passing, hard hitting.

Colgan held leads of 6-1 and 21-17 in the third game of that match. Sammi Therwanger blocked a Colgan kill attempt, which rolled across the top of the net for a short time before finally falling the floor to end the match.

"We started off slow against Colgan," Bingesser said. "We were a little slow all-around last night. It took us a while to get started but we played very scrappy.

"We are still working on having that winning attitude, trying hard not to let down when we get behind. It's coming."

Fort Scott, 3-2, is idle until Sept. 8 when they go to Erie for another non-league triangular.

NOTES -- An e-mail snafu prevented Bingesser's thoughts from Saturday's season-opening quadrangular from reaching the Tribune. The server in Cape Girardeau, Mo., finally decided to let her message go free Monday afternoon.

"The win over Columbus set the tone for the day," Bingesser said. "We were so excited about the win over Columbus that we let down in the match against Girard.

"The games against Pittsburg were super. We got smoked in the first game but the girls did a complete 180 in the next game. We played hard with a lot of confidence. As the game progressed, we just got better and better. This showed the girls that their hard work will play off and we are very capable of playing with everyone we come up against."...