BOURBON — Triton’s Hoosier North Athletic Conference match with Pioneer Tuesday represented a meeting between a very young Lady Trojans lineup and a veteran Panthers crew. The result was about what you’d expect as the Blue Slam lost in three games, but they did show they could play with the big girls during an extended third set.

After suffering lopsided 25-18 and 25-14 losses over the first two sets, Triton’s youthful players stayed in it and really began rolling in the third game. The Blue Slam were tied up seven times and out front as late as 21-19 in that final set. A 4-0 Pioneer run put the Panthers in the driver’s seat at 23-21, however, and the visitors closed it out in three, 26-24.

“We’re so young. Sometimes it takes them a little bit to adjust,” explained Triton coach Gayle Perry of her team, which consists of nine sophomores, a freshman and a single junior.

“But they even said ‘That was a fun match.’ We wanted to win a game so that we could keep playing with them. They were loving playing against them.”

One of the biggest adjustments the Trojans made in that final game was in their service approach, lobbing serves deep into the Panthers’ back row. The adjustment paid off as the home team was able to make a few runs, the biggest a 5-0 spurt midway through that pushed the Blue Slam out to their biggest advantage of the night at 15-12.

“That deep serve, they were going to play it up, but they were going to give us a ball that was a little bit more playable on the dig. That gave us a chance to get it where we needed to and try to kill it,” explained Perry.

Pioneer benefitted from a balanced attack led by Olivia Brooke’s 10 kills. The Trojans weren’t able to mount a whole lot of offense on their side of the court, although Lexia Hostrawser and Alyxa Viers finished with five kills apiece. Where Triton really shined was on defense as Jaela Faulkner and Molly McFarland finished with 10 digs each, and the Trojans front row recorded 17 blocks on the night but finished few of them off.

“I thought our digging was pretty good tonight. And they were hitting; it wasn’t like they were just lollypopping it over,” explained Perry.

“We’re lining it up nice, and we’re starting to read the hitter to see where we need to block. Now we need to redirect it to the floor so that we kill that block.”

Delanie Miller led the Blue Slam in the setting department with 10 assists. Mikenna Landis finished with 23 assists for Pioneer. Haley Gleitz notched 22 digs for the Panthers (21-9), who finished 6-1 for second place in the HNAC after letting one get away opposite North Judson.

Triton (4-17) slipped to 2-5 in the conference. They’ll play another tough match at Plymouth Thursday, then follow up with an even more demanding Dunes Tournament on Saturday.

“We’re getting better and better. We’ve only won four matches, but we play with a lot of teams,” said Perry. “I’m playing with sophomores out there on the floor and one junior out there and a freshman. So we are extremely young, and everything is brand new. They’re great kids. They just keep coming back, and they have a great work ethic.

“Like I told them when they started, this is a three-year project. We’re not going to set the world on fire this year. But next year we’d better start making some moves.”

Meanwhile Tuesday, Triton’s JV team played with Pioneer’s unbeaten junior varsity squad but came up short, 25-18, 25-17 to slip to 12-8. That loss, too, showed promised for the Blue Slam B team.

“Our JV, Pioneer said that’s the closest anybody has played with them JV-wise. They’re undefeated. (Pioneer JV coach Tara Shidler) said ‘No one has played us that tough yet.’ So I felt good about that,” said Perry.