PRINCETON - Princeton's final outing of the 2009 prep volleyball season featured the same work ethic, pride and determination that the Bulldogs have become well-known for over the past three months. Unfortunately for Princeton's playoff fortunes, all that wasn't enough to overcome a tremendous Raleigh Charter squad in the third round of the NCHSAA 1-A playoffs.

The Bulldogs fell 25-8, 25-19, 26-24 on Thursday night, ending their season with an 18-6 mark.

"The thing I always come back to with this team is how much of a pleasure they were to work with," said Princeton coach Trudi Rast. "Their attitude, work ethic and team-first approach is something they've had all year. It served us well. We were able to accomplish a lot of things this year."

Princeton won the Carolina 1-A Conference tournament championship after tying with Rosewood for the league's regular-season title, then beat Lakewood in a thrilling second-round playoff match on Oct. 27.

"I'm so proud of these girls," Rast said. "Their approach made it so easy to come to practice every day. We're losing some seniors we're going to miss, but we've got a lot of good players coming back."

Princeton took a 3-1 lead early in Thursday night's match against Raleigh Charter, but the Phoenix front-line attack ruled the rest of the opening set. Raleigh Charter outscored the Bulldogs 24-2 in the remainder of the game, riding the lead of Toyosi Coker and Lauren Naugle. Coker and Naugle had four kills each in the opening game.

In a sign of things to come, the Phoenix totaled 12 winners in the match, while Princeton had just one - a kill from Maegan Myers.

"We were tense to start with tonight and we just couldn't slow things down in time," Rast said. "We've been good at letting things roll off and moving on so far this season. It's hard to do that when you're playing a team like that."

Raleigh Charter finished the night with 44 winners to Princeton's 17. Naugle finished with 15 kills and four blocks, while Coker added 10 kills. Hannah Wood's five kills led the Bulldogs, while Becca Harlan and Myers added three apiece.

The Bulldogs took an early lead in Game Two as well, but fell behind 9-3. Princeton battled back, eventually tying the match at 17 on a winning block by Traci Bridgers. But back-to-back kills by Naugle shifted things back in the favor of the Phoenix who won the set, 25-19.

"We'd get a little spark and then something crazy would happen," Rast said. "A bad break or bounce. We did get them off of their game a little bit in the third set."

Princeton took a 13-11 lead in the final game on a service ace by Wood and then went up 20-16, but Raleigh Charter (16-3 after the win) wouldn't let it hold. The Bulldogs took a 24-23 lead on a kill by Jenna Aycock, earning a chance to force things into a fourth game then the Phoenix earned a side out, and took match point on a serve by Lindsey Creech.

Earning a chance at a fourth game - which it couldn't do against Raleigh Charter - might have given Princeton a chance for its second straight thrilling playoff victory.

Princeton rallied from a 20-24 deficit in the fourth game, then won a thrilling fifth game to down Lakewood 17-25, 25-23, 21-25, 27-25, 15-13 in the second round.

Down 20-24 to the Leopards on Oct. 27, Princeton rode the service run of Bridgers to a 25-24 lead. Lakewood broke serve to pull even at 25, but the Bulldogs got the ball right back when a Leopard block attempt went wide. Hannah Wood then came up with a serve the Leopards couldn't get back across the net to pull things even at two games apiece.

"We've played very hard all season and have kept working to improve," Rast said. "The girls' hard work is showing up now. Our main issue tonight was serving. When we served well we won games, when we didn't, we struggled.

"We were at our best on serve in the last two games."

The Bulldogs never trailed in the fifth and deciding game, although the Leopards (19-4) were able to tie the score six different times.

Harlan and Wood had two kills each in the fifth game for Princeton.

Wood carried Princeton from a 10-all tie to a 14-10 lead during an service turn that included a ace to force a game point.

The Leopards got back to within 14-13 on consecutive kills from Zanna Faircloth and Devony Hemingway before Harlan ended the match with a kill.

"Everybody played a role for us in the comeback," Rast said. "We did a better job with our defense and on the attack and were able to mix in some tips at the net."