RIO RANCHO — New Mexico School for the Deaf head volleyball coach Stacy Nowak showed a lot of emotion Friday on the court.

She tried everything from tough coaching to maternal sympathy.

Always supportive, she just couldn't get her Lady Roadrunners fired up for their Class B State Tournament quarterfinal showdown with Quemado at Cleveland High School.

And it showed.

The lackluster effort produced a 23-25, 17-25, 20-25 loss, ending the Lady Roadrunners' season at 12-8.

"We were out of it [Friday]," Nowak said. "The players had fear in their eyes. That's the inexperience of playing at the state tournament."

Nowak's focus going into the postseason was on her team and its level of play. NMSD had enough tournament experience this season, too much in fact.

The New Mexico Activities Association informed the school that the squad had to forfeit several regular season matches because, after factoring in pool play competition at two out-of-state tournaments, it played too many matches.

That forced the Lady Roadrunners to climb through last week's District 1B tournament as the bottom seed. It included overcoming a pair of one-game deficits and a two-game deficit at Victory Christian in the championship.

"We could have done the same thing [Friday]," Nowak said. "But for some reason, we didn't have it this week. It's all mental for us. We need to be stronger mentally in these games and we weren't. That hurts."

NMSD committed a slew of hitting and service errors. Despite the troubles it was competitive in each game.

In Game 1, the Lady Roadrunners led 23-22 before committing three-straight hitting errors. In Game 2, NMSD got within 19-16 before committing two hitting errors. That started a 6-1 Lady Eagles run that included back-to-back aces.

The Lady Roadrunners raced to a 10-2 lead in Game 3, but they couldn't sustain the charge and once again Quemado took advantage. A 14-10 NMSD lead quickly turned into a 21-16 deficit.

The team's self destruction in the final game was another reason for Nowak's disappointment.

"That was ours to win and we couldn't execute," Nowak said. "We only had three kills in all three games. We average 15.7 in three games. There is no excuse at all for how we played."

Nowak admitted that playing so many matches outside the state hurt. She feels her team needs to play more against the top clubs in Class B.

"We didn't know any of the teams we faced here except for one," Nowak said. "We beat Hondo at the beginning of the season and when we faced them again [Thursday] in pool play, we played with confidence. I think we need to be able to see these teams more than once in a season, so that when we see them again at the state level, we feel more confident."