CLINTON — It has been rough start to the 2012 season for the Clinton Community College volleyball team.

Following Wednesday’s loss in three sets (25-12, 25-14, 25-16) to Marshalltown Community College at Yourd Gym, the Cougars dropped to 0-13 on the season.

“I was a little disappointed in our performance tonight,” first-year coach Valerie Kline said. “Our first two games were very flat. The third game, they did come back with a little attitude and kind of picked up their heads and I saw some better things than the first two games.”

In each of the three sets, Clinton was able to keep things close early, even take the lead at times. However, a few short runs by Marshalltown and some Clinton errors kept the Cougars from mounting any sort of offensive attack all night.

During the first set, Marshalltown (4-12) held on to a slim 9-7 lead. However, a 10-2 run gave the Tigers enough of a cushion to eventually win the set.

After falling 25-14 in the second set, Clinton came out much more aggressively, taking a 4-3 lead behind kills from freshman outside hitter Nysha Lindo and a service ace from sophomore defensive specialist Kirsten Heeren. The 4-3 lead was the Cougars’ first lead since opening the first set with a 1-0 advantage. But like the first set, Clinton allowed a long run by the Tigers, eventually falling too far behind at 19-11.

“The accountability rests with them tonight,” Kline said. “They played much better yesterday in practice than they did tonight. It was just a different attitude (in practice) than it was tonight.”

Kline stressed the importance of the team getting tougher mentally. She said the team got too down on itself after allowing a long run or committing errors.

“We’re looking to improve our stats as far as errors versus kills and points, and eliminating our own mistakes rather than letting other people give us points; we want to earn our points,” Kline said. “They have a tendency, once they make a mistake, to get down and they don’t get over it very well. So, we’re working on that, focusing on making sure they bring it into the middle, making sure they focus on each other at that point and working as a team instead of six individuals out there.”

Struggling to begin the season wasn’t unexpected, however. Kline understood the situation when she accepted the job. Following the departure of Scott Weston, who left after two seasons to take the job as head coach at Iowa Wesleyan College, there was a fear Clinton Community College would not even have a team this season.

Add the last-second rush of putting a team together with a couple of injuries and Kline has found herself in the middle of a full-on rebuilding project.

“We’re kind of working with what we’ve got,” she said. “We’ve got a lot of strong potential and we’re trying to put it together to make sure there isn’t a lot of confusion on the court. We’ve got quite a few strong players, quite a few promising players, and next week when we’ve got a home game against Kirkwood, we’re hoping to perform a little better than we did tonight.”

But while the Cougars are still looking for their first win, Kline said there are a few reasons to be optimistic. She said her sophomores — outside hitter Cassie Sampson, setter Kassandra Prier and Heeren — have embraced the roles of leaders on this young team, no easy task considering the team is still in the process of getting to know one another.

“They very much stepped up,” Kline said. “I didn’t know what to expect from the sophomores because most of the starters from last year ended up transferring to different schools or not playing this year. So really what I got was a lot of the girls who didn’t play last year. But they have definitely stepped it up, not just on the court but as far as leadership roles. Putting together team dinners, making sure girls know what their responsibilities are, helping me out if I don’t know some things as a first-year coach and calling meetings if we have any drama. So, I’m very happy with the sophomores.”

Kline said the team had done some team-bonding exercises by going out to dinner and participating in some activities off the court, trying to build the team chemistry.

And despite the relatively small roster made up of nine players, Kline said she did not see lack of depth as an issue. Instead, she saw it as more of an advantage moving forward.

“Teams that have more people obviously benefit when there is a down moment because they can sub,” Kline said. “I think having only nine girls on the team has been beneficial because it has allowed us to focus on those nine and make sure they all have a role on the team and know what that role is and play that to their potential. So, I don’t see us having a lot of subs as too much of a challenge.”

Clinton will travel to Davenport today for a match against the St. Ambrose Junior Varsity at 7 p.m.