Tomah had it chance to knock off an upper-echelon Mississippi Valley Conference opponent but fell short once again.

Onalaska held off Tomah surges in all three games and came away with a 26-24, 25-22, 25-19 victory in a high school volleyball match Thursday at Tomah High School.

“This one was there to take,” Tomah coach Greg Bever said. “In those first two games, if we make plays down the stretch, we probably win both of them, but we made too many unforced errors.”

There were times in all three game when it appeared Tomah had the winning momentum.

In the first game, Onalaska built an 18-11 lead before Tomah closed to within 19-18 and forced Onalaska coach Megan Swiggum to call a timeout.

Swiggum had to call another timeout after a service ace from Brandi Patterman and two Onalaska hitting errors put Tomah ahead, 22-21.

Onalaska tied the game on a Rachel Greene tip kill, and the Hilltoppers moved to game-point after a Gretchen Otto kill and a Tomah bump that sailed out of bounds.

Tomah brought the game back to 24-24 on a Chelsea Millin kill, but a hitting error and a 4-hit violation gave Onalaska the game’s final two points.

The Timberwolves zoomed out to an 8-0 lead in game two. The run included two kills by Katie Murphy and several Onalaska hitting errors.

Onalaska came right back with a 7-0 run and took its first lead of the match at 12-11 on a Jenny Kessler spike.

The Hilltoppers stretched the lead to 15-11 before Tomah countered with an 8-2 run capped by a Kayla Macrafic kill.

After Onalaska tied the game at 21-21, the Timberwolves won a point off a long rally that should have been a huge momentum boost. However, Tomah put its next serve into the net, and Onalaska promptly scored the game’s final three points, the last of which came off a block from Sidney Sierp.

“It seems like it’s the stretch run is when we make our mistakes,” Bever said. “I know they’re not trying to make mistakes, but they have to find to way to get it done when it’s close.”

Onalaska never trailed in game three, although Tomah rallied to within 11-10 after trailing 9-3. McKenzie Guth delivered a spike for match point.

The Timberwolves struggled to put pressure on Onalaska’s defense. They had just 11 kills, five of which came from middle hitter Erin Dechant.

Tomah did manage to pop up several hard Onalaska serves and spikes. Back row player Caitlin Anderson led the Timberwolves with 17 digs.

“Caitlin did a nice job,” Bever said. “A couple of serves came at her really hard, but she managed to get to them and the ball where it was supposed to be.”

Brooke Von Haden had 16 digs, while Dechant and Patterman had nine each. Patterman also had four kills.