"I'm disappointed," said East Central Head Coach Brad Bruns. "We worked so hard all year long to reach this point and we weren't able to perform at our peak level. We let the magnitude of the tournament get the better of us. Mentally, we just didn't compete."

East Central will play McHenry County, Ill. (35-9), a four-game loser to Columbus State (Ohio) College in another first-round game. That match is set to be played at 10 a.m. Friday morning.

"We have an opportunity to redeem ourselves," Bruns said. "I hope the girls can play like I know they can play."

The Lady Falcons helped Parkland, which had been ranked No. 1 in the final regular season national poll, in many ways. East Central committed 25 attack errors in the match, enough for one full game.

Overall, the Lady Falcons had a negative attack percentage for the match.

"We doubted ourselves," Bruns said. "We worried about making mistakes instead of just going and playing our game."

There weren't many highlights for the Lady Falcons in the match.

It was a lethargic start for the Lady Falcons, who watched the Cobras score the first four points in the match.

East Central never threatened Parkland in the game. Single kills became highlights for the Lady Falcons.

Freshman Natalie Davis (Lafayette) had a block for the first highlight. Next, freshman Aleisha Joyce (Carthage) posted the next highlight with a kill. Freshman Kara Bowman (St. Dominic), the libero, put a back row save down for a kill. But that was it. Parkland freshman Brittany Monken put down a kill to end it at 25-9.

In the second game, the Lady Falcons found some fight. East Central was tied early, but fell behind. The Lady Falcons fought back to within one point late, but could not take the lead.

East Central scored on a rare Parkland error to make it 17-13. The Lady Falcons scrambled just to save the ball and were rewarded with a point.

Sophomore Stephanie Heim (Logan-Rogersville) put down a kill and then served an ace to cut it to 18-15.

Another Parkland error brought East Central to within a point at 22-21, but the Lady Falcons could not take advantage.

Parkland ended up winning, 25-22.

That would be as close as the Lady Falcons would get to winning. East Central led for a while in the third game, but did not score as many points.

In the third game, the Lady Falcons showed they could play with Parkland. East Central led several times, and led by as much as three points.

East Central broke on top at 5-4 on a double block by Julie Ohlms (Lutheran St. Charles, State Fair Community College) and Davis.

East Central tied it on a kill by Joyce off the Parkland block, 10-10.

Joyce picked up another kill to stop a Parkland run at 12-10. Ohlms smacked down an over pass and Heim and Joyce combined to stop a pass over the net to knot the game at 14-14.

East Central continued the run. Heim put down an over pass to give the Lady Falcons the lead, 17-14.

But Parkland turned things around, first tying and then taking the lead. East Central managed just two more points in the game before Parkland finished things off, 25-19.

Heim led the team with seven kills. Joyce had five kills and had .400 for the match. She also had one solo block and two assists.

Davis and Ohlms each had two block assists.

Ohlms and Kirchhofer each had two kills.

Kirchhofer posted 13 assists in the match. Heim had two aces. Bowman led the team with 11 digs and Ohlms added nine.