The Blue Devils had an opportunity to seize control but they couldn’t take advantage of it in a 25-11, 18-25, 25-22, 25-18 loss to St. Cloud Tech in a volleyball match in Riverland Wednesday.

The Blue Devils (0-5 overall, 0-2 MCAC South) led the third game 22-20, but SCT scored the last five points of the game as Tesslyn Callander and Shannon Gruber came up with key kills.

“One of our goals is to talk and we didn’t communicate like we did against Ridgewater (Saturday),” RCC head coach Sara Heim said. “When we get our communication down, the excitement will come and we’ll have some runs.”

After a sluggish first game, RCC finished the second game strong in a win.

“Everything clicked in that one,” Heim said. “In the other games either our defense or our offense were on and we couldn’t put it together.”

RCC got as close as 20-17 after a kill by Robin Arjes in the fourth game, but SCT scored five of the last six points.

Cassie Masberg had 10 kills and 13 digs for RCC and Arjes had five kills and three ace serves.

“Those two are very aggressive players,” Heim said.

RCC played the match without Rebekah Aase, who had a prior commitment and the match saw the return Liz Schmidt, a sophomore from Mankato Loyola, played in her first match.

Schmidt was on RCC’s team last season.

“It was nice to get Liz back in the lineup and once she gets a few more practices in, she’ll be up to speed,” Heim said.

RCC stats: Cassie Masberg, 10 kills, 13 digs; Brittney Dahl, 15 set assist; Robin Arjes, 5 kills, 3 aces, 2 blocks; Brooke Coughlin, 6 aces; Haley Christensen, 2 blocks; Laura Hemann, 8 digs, 3 aces