DOWAGIAC — Chieftain coach Tony Hooley said that it was the little things that allowed Three Rivers to sweep his team in its Wolverine Conference opener Thursday night.

The visiting Wildcats defeated Dowagiac 25-19, 26-24 and 25-20. The loss dropped the Chieftains to 7-5 overall and 0-1 in conference play.

“Three Rivers is lean, long and athletic,” Hooley said. “They have a good group of hitters. They pass well and are very fast on the floor. We have made huge improvements in our passing game, but we did not see that tonight. We also made too many silly mistakes. Volleyball is a game of error management, but the mistakes need to be a result of the opponent putting us in stressful situations. Too many of our errors were a result of poor execution.”

Despite the errors, Hooley was pleased that his team never quit and played well on the defensive side of the net.

“We were very scrappy on defense, and when we played under control, we had an effective, balanced offense,” he said. “I’m most proud of the fact that the girls never gave up. We know we can play better than we did tonight, so we can remain positive as we tackle the rest of our schedule.”

Megan Davis and Allie Conner led the team in kills with eight each, while Conner also had 10 digs. Davis added three digs.

Anna Dobberstein led the Chieftains with 11 digs, while Jenna Davis had a team-high two blocks to go with six kills.

Nicole Whan led the team with 31 assists. She also had five kills.

Dowagiac returns to the court on Thursday as it travels to Allegan for another Wolverine Conference match.