The Packers volleyball team opened its season with a speed bump in a game-set loss to Farmington by scores to of 13-25, 20-25, 20-25 Thursday night in Packer Gym.

Austin fell behind early in all three sets, but battled back in the last games.

“We’re still looking for great things from this team,” Austin head coach Darrica Schneider said. “Momentum always suffers when you start with a loss, but nobody expected us to beat Farmington and no body expected us to score 20 points against them. We made them sweat a little.”

Farmington’s front line of Katie Habeck, who had 19 kills, and Danielle Dombeck, who had 12 kills, had their way as their quick-hit offense kept the Packers off-balanced.

“You’ve gotta give props to their setter, because (the hitter is in the air before that ball gets there and you have to put it right there,” Schneider said. “They have a fine tuned offense and when their on defense they got up and were all over the floor.”

The Packers hurt themselves in the third game when they had two service errors.

“Those are crucial points and its just you and the net,” Schneider said. “You can’t give up those points.”

Rebekah Aase had nine kills, six blocks and five aces for Austin, Jolene Brody had 17 digs and five kills, Emma Arboe had 13 digs, Nichelle Grage had nine assists and Ellen Ettinger had eight assists.

Austin had four players making their varsity debuts and they showed some nerves, but Schneider said they will come around.

“I am not displeased at all,” she said. “I think we need to do some things on defense like covering our hitters, because we haven’t played at this level in a year.”

The Packers started the third game off with a 3-0 lead and they led 10-9 before Farmington’s Danielle Dobeck served an ace to make it 10-10. Austin never took the lead again in that game.