Bethlehem has struggled with failing to get off to quick starts in many of its matches this season.

That Achilles’ heel raised its ugly head again Wednesday at the most inopportune time when the Banshees played Taylor County in the semifinals of the 5th Region Volleyball Tournament at Nelson County.

Playing from behind put Bethlehem back on its heels as the Banshees saw their season come to an end with a 3-0 setback, falling to the Cardinals 26-24, 25-15, 25-22.

“One of the things we’ve been working on in practices and games lately is to start strong and finish strong,” Bethlehem coach Mike Shay said. “That’s what happened to our team tonight and they waited and waited and then it’s like we started hammering down.”

Taylor County scored the first seven points of the first set, forcing Shay to call a timeout. His team regrouped and managed to knot the score at 9. After the Cardinals took a 17-10 lead, the Banshees rallied to tie the score at 23.

Bethlehem took its only lead of the set at 24-23 but Taylor County squared things. A drop shot by Brooklyn Yates nearly allowed the Banshees to pull out the first set, but they gave up the next three points.

Shay’s team got off to a better start in the second set and led 9-5 before their scoring stalled. The Cardinals tied the score at 11 and then proceeded to score 10 of the next 11 points to put the game away.

“The second set was rough because the girls were still trying to get over that first set loss,” Shay said. “The biggest thing was they were being able to hit the ball and then transition to tip and throwing the ball. It took us a while to make that adjustment. We finally did more the third set. We were more scrappy and able to adjust a little more than we did in the second set.”

Taylor County led most of the final set but the Banshees were never more than three points behind. They had a chance to keep the game with the serve and trailing 24-22, but a service error ended the match.

“I thought our girls battled well and I’m super proud of them,” Shay said. “We just fell a little short.”

Bethlehem will graduate Alexis Lanz, Sloane Smith, Kyli Davidson, Maddie Krill and Matti Deopere.