“The thing is, I don’t consider it to be a tough loss,” Brees said. “We didn’t fight hard enough for it to be tough. The true reality of what we put out there, that is not a tough loss. That is a lack of character loss.

“As an athlete, you get to choose. You get to choose whether you’re going to fight, or you choose if you’re gonna give up. We don’t talk here about wins and losses, we say you’ve got to go out and compete. We have to compete and we have to show some pride. None of that was on display, I don’t think we know what it is.”

The frustrations were clear — Marshalltown was never really in the match against the 14-8 Warriors, who despite a difficult season by their standards are still one of the best teams in the country.

Marshalltown, 2-15 on the season, has struggled throughout a difficult year. Brees said a part of that is lagging effort — something he likened to a nagging injury that keeps coming back. It has been five matches since the Tigers have won a set.

T-R PHOTO BY NOAH ROHLFING

“We always fall back to that ‘injury’ too, as our excuse for what’s happening and no one takes accountability,” Brees said. “We go in the training room a million times for that nagging thing, but we never fix it. It’s like going to the weight room, if you don’t put the time in, there’s going to be no benefit. And right now we’re not getting any benefit.”

Set one was not in doubt after the Warriors took an early 7-4 lead, stretching it out to 20-10 before scoring the final five points of the set to clinch it.

In the second set, MCC started with its best run of play in the game, jumping out to an early lead and putting some pressure on the Warriors to counter-punch.

What Indian Hills did was go on a 11-0 run after trailing 7-6 to take a 17-7 lead, eventually winning the set 25-11 and taking a 2-0 lead into set three.

The Warriors had a 15-0 lead at one point in the third set and looked to be genuinely gunning for a clean sweep. MCC scored four of the next five points, but the Warriors finished the job clinically to take home the win.

T-R PHOTO BY NOAH ROHLFING

Leading the way for the Tigers in assists was Faith Lobo with nine. Natalia Maciejewska led the Tigers with three kills, while Lobo, Tasia Pohle and Andjela Bobic had two each. On defense, Allinson Almonte had 11 of the team’s 30 digs. Lobo, Maciejewska and Evah Owens recorded four apiece. The Tigers had no aces.

This late in the season, performances like this play into Brees’ planning for the future, he said.

“I think we’re at probably 50 times we’ve changed [lineups],” Brees said. “What we’ve decided, I’m going back to my old-school type of coaching. We’re going to work hard, it’s going to be exact reps, reps, reps, reps. Hard, we’re going hard. If you want to leave the program, leave, you know, but we’re gonna put some sweat and tears out on the court.”

The Tigers host Hawkeye CC on Monday night.