The Whitehall girls volleyball team didn't let an early setback derail them from claiming their second straight victory to start the season.

The Zephs rallied from an 0-1 deficit to win three consecutive games against visiting Freedom High School last week. They won 23-25, 25-19, 25-21 and 25-19 to put them at 2-0 on the young season.

The Zephs were able to withstand that early adversity by sticking to what they practiced leading up to the 2014 season. They also benefited from a simple adjustment that reversed their fortunes. Senior Tanesia Rehrig said it was a matter of communicating with one another.

"Our team really started to talk," said Rehrig. "We started to work together and fight through our loss of the ball with aggressive serving and swinging at everything."

Rehrig said they weren't communicating during serve-receive, squandering a 10-point lead in that first game. Once they corrected that, they began to mesh together, never surrendering the lead except for a brief in the third game en rout to the victory.

Rehrig, who plays the game with a smile on her face, was instrumental in the comeback. She left some epidermis on the court diving after balls, registering 25 digs to lead the team.

Two of Rehrigs digs came at pivotal times late in the game. Rehrig said she doesn't consciously try and spark her team with a big save.

"I like to play every ball," she said. "I don't particularly look to do it at game point, but I just try to get any ball I can.

Head coach Laura Hausman said the win demonstrated their ability to stay calm and stay focused on what they needed to do which allowed them to prevail against the Pates.

"Our girls are very good at maintaining balance," said Hausman. "We always tell them to stop score watching because it doesn't matter. How you play will reflect in the score. They remained calm and went back to basics and played how we were practicing."

She said the main message from the sideline was to stay disciplined. That message resonated as the team kept its composure and focused on the next point.

"They're really good at staying levelheaded," she said.

Freedom's front line posed some problems with its size. They were able to register a number of kills along with some blocks led by Meghan Edmund (10 kills) and Hannah Evans (7 kills).

Hausman said they countered Freedom's size by just playing good, tough defense.

"When we have a mismatch like that in the front row, that's why we have a solid defense in the back row," said Hausman.

In perhaps the best game of the match, the Zephs opened a 4-point lead early in the third contest. They were up 11-7, but the Pates staged their own rally to trim the lead to 15-14 before surging ahead a few possessions later, 18-17. After that, it was back and forth as both teams looked to gain control down the stretch.

Helping them gain the advantage was Rebecca Lutterschmidt who had a big hit to break a 21-21 tie. Lutterschmidt finished with 10 kills. That was followed by Rehrig's sprawling dig that turned into another Zephyr point.

The final nail in the coffin, at least from a momentum standpoint, was a devastating block from Cristal Fernandez that helped shut the door on the Patriots. They were able to reel off four unanswered points, putting them in the driver's seat for the fourth game.

In that final game, the Zephs took advantage of some unforced errors by Freedom, vaulting out to a 20-13 lead. The Pates fought back, but another tremendous dig by Rehrig and some key assists by Kristin Spengler, who finished the match with 25, helped fend off the charging Pates. The game-winner was provided by Liz Lynch who registered one of her 11 kills to give the Zephs their second Eastern Pennsylvania Conference win.

Hausman said after what they experienced in the first game with the "back and forth," they'll be looking to recreate those game situations in practice.

"That's what we'll be working on," she said.

Rehrig said their quick start stems from a good coaching staff that pushes them at practice. They've also been working on mental toughness, something that can be improved with hard work and experience.