Thursday’s Valley Oak League opener between East Union and host Manteca High ended with somewhat of a whimper after they battled through four tightly-contested games.

For Manteca, in particular, the five-game match — 22-25, 25-22, 25-20, 23-25, 8-15 — ended fittingly with a service error.

“It says a lot about the rest of the match,” Manteca coach Tim Horning said. “We handed it to them.”

While East Union (1-0, 4-3 overall) came up big in key moments of the match, the Buffaloes (0-1, 2-5) were often laboring to recover from spurts of self-inflicted miscues.

The 27 hitting errors stick out the most to Horning (“That’ a full game plus two [points],” he said). Tack on the 15 passing errors and 14 more from the service line, and you have a meteoric-sized crater to climb out of.

“That’s a lot of free points for them,” Horning said. “Our passing wasn’t on, our hitting wasn’t on — I’m honestly surprised we survived five games with that many errors.”

Manteca could have swept had it not blown leads of 14-5 and 18-11 in the first set. Five straight errors, the last coming on an errant serve-receive pass, allowed East Union to close in.

That’s when Lancer middle blocker Sierra Tailes took over. During a late seven-point stretch, Tailes scored with two tips, a block and two kills — the last of which tied it at 21. Kianna Lamont, who helped spark the comeback earlier in the game, clinched it for EU with a kill.

Tailes would end up leading all players with 18 points, while sophomore setter Regina Dias tallied 62 assists and six aces. Dias recorded two of those aces at the start of the final game, helping EU mount a 5-0 lead.

Leading Manteca were Sammy Morris (20 assists, 2 blocks), Jimi Guibor (9 digs, 5 aces) and Danielle Deerinck (6 kills).

“Sierra Tailes is a key player, and Regina is huge on this team,” East Union coach Jenaia Cano said. “Those two complement each other well.”

In the pivotal fourth game, it was East Union that nearly gave up a big lead. Thanks to Alexis Steele, the Lancers were able to hold on to extend the contest.

After earlier struggling to get it going — she had five hitting errors and one more from the service line in Game 2 — it was Steele’s kill that punctuated a 9-0 run while widening EU’s lead to 15-4.

Manteca ended up putting up a fight.

Spearheaded by Morris, who made several big plays at the net, the Buffaloes were able to get to within one, 23-24.

Steele would score the final two points for EU, first with a tip that capped the most exciting rally of the match. And with Manteca threatening to tie it, Steele iced it emphatically with a kill.

“That was a huge relief,” Steele said. “I was glad I came back toward the end, because I was frustrated with myself at the beginning. It felt really good.”

Sophomore

Manteca 2, East Union 1

Anchored by setter Jessica Hasal (18 assists, 10 service points), the Buffaloes were able to hold off their crosstown rival to improve to 6-1 overall. Game scores were: 25-20, 18-25, 15-7.

McKenna Balmut and Abby Behler led Manteca’s front row with five kills and three blocks, respectively. Beth Aschenbrenner turned in seven digs.

For East Union (0-1), Carolina Gutierrez finished with eight digs, five assists and three aces; Lauren Terry added three digs and three aces; and Taylor Rose swatted four kills.