Manteca struggled in serve receive Tuesday, leading to a season-ending loss in the California Interscholastic Federation NorCal Division IV Regional Championships opener.

The ninth-seeded Buffaloes were eliminated at Buchanan in Clovis, 21-25, 25-13, 21-25, 25-23, 1-15. The No. 8 Bears (10-23) travel to San Jose on Thursday to take on top-seeded Branham (26-4).

“Something just felt a little off tonight,” Manteca coach Robin Chandler said. “They did have some really good servers and our serve receive was a little off. Sometimes you have those nights, and we happened to have them at the wrong time.”

The loss marks the end of the stellar four-year careers of middle blocker Karlie Spohn (18 kills, nine blocks) and libero Abbey Kadillak, two of the team’s 10 seniors. Spohn started at outside hitter on Tuesday but returned to her normal spot in the middle after the first set.

“We tried a few different things tonight,” Chandler said. “We tried Carly on the outside, we’ve been practicing that, but we missed how dynamic she was in the middle so we put her back there for the rest of the match.”

Third-year varsity players Adrianna Powell (10 kills, nine digs) and Camrenne Genilla (eight kills, four digs) also played their final match for Manteca, as did setter Arielle Chandler (37 assists, 10 digs, two blocks) and Isabella Pires (12 digs). Junior outside hitter Courtney Washburn contributed five kills and two blocks, while sophomore middle Izabella Sanchez had seven blocks.

“It was definitely a special group of seniors,” Coach Chandler said. “They, and even the underclassmen, all got along well. They’re amazing athletes, and a few of them will be able to play volleyball in college so it’s something to look forward to. But it’s tough, because of the connection these girls have had since middle school.”