ARGYLE — Serving has come up huge for the Orioles in recent matches. Against Barneveld, Argyle missed just two serves in five sets. Two days later in a sweep of Juda, the Orioles missed just one — and collected 25 total aces.

“I thought they did a great job of mixing up their spots, their zones,” Argyle coach Jen Green said after her team’s 25-4, 25-7, 25-13 victory against Juda Oct. 8. “They were going short and long. It’s something we’ve worked on in practice a lot, so it was good to see that come through tonight.”

Maggie Godfrey led Argyle with 12 aces and 11 spike kills against Juda. Godfrey, a tall outside hitter, was rarely challenged at the net. In fact, the Panthers could hardly put up a fight against Argyle’s front line.

“It was nice to get all of our hitters involved as well with passing it, too. It was good to see everything just come together,” Green said.

In the opening set, all four of the Panthers’ points came because of Argyle faults — two net violations and two failed return volleys. In the meantime, Breann Flannery racked up five aces during a nine-point run, and Godfrey added another 5 aces during a 12-point run that made it 24-3.

In the second set, the score was knotted at 2 with Godfrey slamming down two kills — but the Orioles whistled for a hitting error and then returning another volley out of bounds. A short serve by the Panthers gave the Orioles the side-out needed to get Godfrey back to the service line, where she recorded three more aces in five serves. Trailing 7-2, Juda got the ball back when the Orioles again failed to return a volley inbounds. Ciarrah Davis then scored Juda’s first offensive point with an ace. A Juda net violation on the next volley gave the serve back to Argyle, which then went on a 13-1 run to make it 24-6.

“We had a person get injured, so we worked on a new rotation. We practiced it once before we put it in,” said Juda coach Maren Huntsman. She said that as the match went on, her players got more comfortable in their new rotation. “They were probably a little less confused, too, because we were able to set the new rotation. We were making more of our serves, which also helps.”

Huntsman’s squad loosened up a bit in the third set and opened on a 4-0 run. The quick jab of points startled the easy-flowing offense of Argyle, but a clean serve receive led to Megan Johnson setting up a power slam for Godfrey. Johnson then scored an ace on each of the next four serves to give Argyle a 5-4 lead. Five serves later, on her 10th-straight serve, Johnson put the ball into the net for the only service error of the night for the Orioles.

“This was the first night I was actually doing pretty good at it,” Johnson said of serving. “I think it’s mostly my mindset.”

Johnson missed two weeks of action while quarantining, but said that once she was able to get back on the floor, she and the offense has really started to flow.

“I missed that pretty critical first practices of the season, and coming back from that was hard. After getting over that I’m getting back into my groove,” she said. “I’ve been playing with these girls since I could walk. The chemistry on this team is probably one of the best things about us. We connect so well.”

Juda hung with Argyle for the next 15 points, going almost point-for-point back and forth. A serve out of bounds by the Panthers at 17-12 put the serve back into the rotational hands of Johnson, who rattled off another three aces in a seven-point stretch.

“I think every play is important. It might feel like even though we reach a point where we can’t come back that we can still ‘get it.’ We can still make that pass; we can still make that set,” Huntsman said.

Tori Lantz led the Orioles with two blocks, while Flannery had 13 digs. Grace Ganshert notched seven kills and Johnson dished out 20 assists in all.

Jocelyn Rufer led Juda with four kills and four blocks. Morgan Schneeberger, Davis and Rufer each had an ace. Maddie Smith finished with 10 assists, and Davis collected 42 digs.