With its back against the wall, the Warren East volleyball team dug deep Tuesday and pushed through in its district match against Warren Central.

The Lady Raiders overcame sloppy service play and a one-game deficit to rally for a 2-1 victory (18-25, 25-22, 25-19) at Warren East High School.

Warren East (7-3, 1-2) broke open tight contests in the second and third games to pick up its first official win in district play.

“It’s a big relief,” WE coach Jen Legge said. “Central is always tough. We are evenly matched. They have such tremendous athletes and we definitely were not playing anywhere near where we should have been playing, but we pulled through and we battled. We talk about perseverance - it’s on our shirts. That’s one thing my girls had tonight that I really haven’t seen.”

Tuesday was the third meeting between the two teams this season, although the first to count in the district standings. And like the previous two matches, which occurred during the recent Edmonson County Lady Cats Invitational, it was a three-game battle that came down to the final points.

Warren Central (7-3, 0-1) never trailed in game one, jumping ahead 8-1 and leading by three or more points the rest of the way. Warren East couldn’t get anything going at the net, finishing game one with two kills and a block.

“We started off really slow and kind of couldn’t get up and get the momentum,” Warren East senior setter Brooke White said. “This is always a big rivalry. We’re real good friends, so it is always hard for us to play each other.”

Game two was a more evenly matched battle, with the lead volleying back before Warren Central used a 5-1 surge to take a 13-9 lead midway through the game.

Warren East answered with an 8-3 run to briefly regain the advantage 17-16.

The lead went back and forth before the Lady Raiders closed the match with a kill and block from White and an ace from Jessie Forrest to break a 22-22 tie and give Warren East the win.

The final game was even tighter, with no team leading by more than two points until the final stretch, when Warren East scored the final six points to secure the match.

“Players have got to make plays coming down the stretch,” Warren East coach Craig Anderson said. “We had too many unforced errors and probably lost some aggressiveness and confidence and we didn’t cover some holes. We had a really good plan coming in. I thought for the most part we did a good part of covering that and getting to the ball, except for the crucial part in the third game.”

The Lady Raiders overcame 16 service errors - 13 in the final two games.

“At one point it was just comical,” Legge said. “For some reason we don’t serve well at home and I don’t know why. They served when they needed, but we’re serving tomorrow in practice.”

White finished with six kills - including three in the game-deciding run - a block and an assist.

“I knew I had to do something to get us the game,” White said. “I knew if I could get some blocks or touches or kills we could end up pushing through.”

Hillary Herrington added an ace and five kills and Forrest finished with four kills and three aces for Warren East.

Lisa Ross led the way for Warren Central with a game-high 12 kills and two aces.

“We probably maybe should have gone to her maybe a little more,” Anderson said. “We want to keep spreading things around to keep the defense off, but Lisa was definitely on tonight.”

Warren Central will return to action Tuesday when it plays at Greenwood. Warren East will play Thursday at Edmonson County.