The Marlboro Dukes were three points away from doing something no one else had done this season.

Win a set from the Mount Academy Eagles.

Then came a frustrated substitution by Mount Academy coach Sandy Mancuso-Lopez and the Eagles rallied from five points down to tie the match as they won the third set by two points, finishing a 3-0 shutout of the Dukes in a Mid Hudson Athletic League volleyball match on Thursday at Marlboro High School.

The Eagles won the match, 25-20, 25-15, 25-23.

“The fact that in two of the sets we pushed more than 20 points is something to be happy about,” Marlboro coach Emily Beck said. “We’ve been working on our consistency and energy.

We had a little bit of a bump in the road this week and this level of play is exactly what I’m looking for.”

After losing the first two sets, the Dukes built a six-point lead in which Mancuso-Lopez used both of her timeouts to get her team back on track.

Eventually a kill by Mount Academy’s Lisa Potts sent Marion Winter to the service line. She was still there when the ball bounced off teammate Kerri Boller and landed on the Dukes’ side of the net in bounds to tie the set, 22-22.

Then with the set tied at 23-23, a hitting error by Marlboro’s Katie Mohl gave the Eagles the lead. Beck called a timeout before the Dukes had another hitting error to end the match.

It was the second meeting between these two teams in nine days. The Dukes lost a 3-0 match to the Eagles on Sept. 15 in Esopus, 25-16, 25-14, 25-12.

“Mount Academy is the best around,” Beck said. “So, being able to stick with them and have their coach call two timeouts before I call a timeout is fantastic. I was happy with our side of the court, even though it didn’t fall our way.”

It ended a rough week for the Dukes, who suffered a five-set loss on Sept. 22 to the Spackenkill Spartans. The Dukes took a 2-0 lead in that match winning the first two sets, 25-17, 25-16, before losing the final three sets, 27-25, 25-23, 15-11.

“We talked a lot about our mindset yesterday and we had a negative frame of mind,” Beck said. “We were down and our every time they pushed points on us. We’re getting them in the habit of pretending they don’t know the score and being able to play at our level no matter what.”

The Dukes had a few days to recover as they didn’t take the court again until Monday when they hosted the Dover Dragons in a non-league match. They were scheduled to return to conference play on Tuesday with a road match against the New Paltz Huguenots before paying a visit to the Wallkill Panthers on Thursday.

“I feel great,” Beck said. “We did have one bump in the road, but I’m not looking backward anymore. I’m only looking forward. We play a lot of great teams, so realistically, I’m just looking for high mental pushing through, girls staying confident in themselves, each other, and me. They want to go to Mount St. Mary’s (site of Section 9 tournament) and play there.”