ALDEN &045; The Alden-Conger volleyball team lost to Mankato Loyola in four hard- fought games Friday night 22-25, 25-15, 19-25, 23-25.

The Knights playing in their first game of the season and under new head coach Jenny Hanson battled back-and-forth with Mankato all night long, but didn&8217;t have enough to finish a couple of games.

&8220;The girls were confident and you didn&8217;t see a lot of the jitters that normally come with the first game,&8221; Hanson said.

After dropping the first game, the Knights got out to a lead in game two and didn&8217;t look back winning with ease.

&8220;They didn&8217;t get down after that first game and wanted to show that they were ready to play and felt they could win,&8221; Hanson said of her team&8217;s effort.

After Mankato took the third game the Knights found themselves down 18-24 in game four before they staged an impressive comeback to get within one.

Justine Johnson led the way for the Knights recording six kills and seven blocks to provide an intimidating presence at net.

Nadean Krueger had four aces on the night and Krista Mathiason led the way with seven kills.

A-C is back in action Thursday when it travels to Wells to face the Rebels.