After losing a 2-0 lead in an eventual loss to the Severna Park High School volleyball team last week, South River's Chelsea Zurcher made certain her team didn't let down again Tuesday night at Old Mill.

Zurcher's kills accounted for five of the Seahawks' final eight points in the fourth game, avoiding a fifth-game tiebreaker in Millersville and clinching the 22-25, 25-22, 25-20, 25-21 win in an Anne Arundel County match.

With three games left in the regular season for No. 14 South River (8-3 overall, 7-2 conference), including a match up with county leader Broadneck, the Seahawks want to pick up ground before the postseason and a win over Old Mill should build momentum.

The No. 12 Patriots (8-4, 6-3) won the first game and were paced by the efforts of Kaitlin Digiacinto (16 kills, 12-of-12 serving) and Gaby Haubenstricker (nine kills, nine digs, 11-of-12 serving).

But, the Patriots serve seemed to elude them in the next three games and unforced errors allowed the Seahawks – who were having their own service issues – to hang around.

"We had way too many missed serves, and that was the downfall in game 1," South River coach Maureen Carter said. "And even in games two and three, they were close and they wouldn’t have been that close if we hadn’t missed our serves."

All three games were back and forth affairs with the second game tied at 14-14, the third at 18-18 and the fourth at 17-17.  In all three cases, South River was able to pull away late with the stellar play of their hitters - and the consistent passing of Erica Moran (28 assists).

"I think that we just got too conservative. They need to let it go and keep playing hard. They won the first game and they thought, we'll just chill out and coast. And in the second game, that didn't work out. The third game they were on their heels," Old Mill coach Sam Myers said.

"That's been our problem all year. If they would play every game like they played the first game, we'd have the victories."

Zurcher finished with 14 kills. Melissa Patterson had 12 kills, Jackie Martin added 10 and Kim Kolarik contributed five. Libero Kate Johnson was a sparkplug defensively, pacing the team with 18 digs.

Moran (13-of-13 serving), Kolarik (19-of-20) and M.C. LaRuese (17-of-18) shined at the service line for the Seahawks.

South River tied the game at 17-17 and Kolarik took over the serve late in the fourth game. Zurcher and Patterson each had kills to take a two-point lead. Then Patterson made the block and the kill, followed by Moran feeding Zurcher for two more kills to run the lead to 22-17.