A&M Consolidated's volleyball team doesn't have enough size or experience to overcome a bad passing night, and the Lady Tigers were stricken with that match-killing affliction Tuesday against Tomball Memorial.

Never comfortable receiving serve, Consol played well in spurts but dropped the nondistrict match 25-20, 26-24, 25-21 at Tiger Gym.

Consol (10-12) lost to the Lady Cougars for the second time in four days. Memorial (14-12) swept two games Saturday in the back draw of the Volleypalooza tournament in Leander.

The Lady Tigers pushed Memorial to 28-26 in the second game of the tourney match, and Consol threatened to win the last two games Tuesday. However, the Lady Wildcats possess four hitters who were equal to or stronger than Consol's top attacker.

To overcome that imbalance, the Lady Tigers needed to pass the ball well and run their offense effectively. That didn't happen nearly often enough.

"We struggled in serve receive-passing, and that's been an inconsistent thing for us," Consol coach Jennifer Kazmierski said. "We know that when we pass well, we actually run a pretty fast offense. That's one of the things we tried to do this year. We knew we were smaller, so we were going to have to try to beat blocks by creating one-on-one situations with a fast offense.

"When we pass at the 10-foot line and behind, it makes it really hard for us to be able to utilize our speed."

At times against Memorial, the 10-foot line area would have been an improvement, with service receptions sprayed left and right. Consol allowed five service aces and lost at least another dozen points because poor serve receiving gave Memorial an advantage.

When the Lady Tigers were able to pass well, which was the case during a 14-3 run in the middle of Game 2, the offense worked. Senior middle blocker Camryn Garner and sophomore setter Emily Edwards combined on several quick attacks during that spurt.

"When we get in a struggle situation when the game's on the line, we tend to get tight," Kazmierski said. "That's when we play it safe and pull the setter off the net. Our setter is young, and when we pass [to] her up on the tape she does a lot of good things. When we make her run around, it's not great.

"We expect to do better on serve receive. When the first touch starts to go bad, it wreaks havoc."

Memorial dominated the closing segments of all three games. That ability to finish was magnified in the second and third games, when Consol was the first team to 20 points each time.

In Game 2, McKenzie Dimery's kill started a run of three consecutive points that pushed the home team ahead 23-22. But Memorial won four of the next five points, the last two on kills by Kodi Garcia.

The Lady Tigers went on a 5-0 run to build a 20-18 edge in the third game. That charge featured senior libero Autumn Foust, who had a dink kill, made a great dig on a blast by Karli Rose and served an ace.

Memorial responded by winning the next five points and seven of the last eight. Five of the seven points came as a result of Consol errors.

Senior Madie Welch and junior Dimery led the Lady Tigers with 10 kills apiece, while Garner added eight. Edwards finished with 26 assists. Sawyer Nowak contributed 20 digs, while Foust made 17 and Dimery had 16.

Rose led Memorial with 13 kills.

Consol will host Magnolia West at 6 p.m. Friday. The Lady Tigers open District 18-5A play in two weeks.

In subvarsity results, Consol's JV beat Memorial 25-22, 25-15. The Lady Tiger freshmen fell 23-25, 25-23, 25-21