When Centralia lost to W.F. West in the two team’s first meeting two weeks ago, Centralia coach Marti Smith felt that the Tigers had made too many unforced errors to compete.
Centralia flipped the script in the rematch on Thursday, sweeping W.F. West 25-16, 25-15, 25-14 for a senior night victory.
“It was one of those all-around great effort from top to bottom games,” Smith said. “I honestly couldn’t be prouder.”
Smith said that the Tigers went in with the goal of scoring the first point in every set, and they did just that. That momentum carried over in all three sets, as they led nearly wire-to-wire.
“Their energy was good, and it was consistent,” Smith said. “I’d like to believe it was our girls’ energy and the way they were locked in and not backing down that caused a lot of (W.F. West’s) unforced errors.”
McKenna Smith tallied 14 assists, five digs, three aces, and three kills, and Makenzie Erickson added 12 digs while also going a perfect 11 for 11 from the service line.
Ryleigh Butler was also perfect in 14 attempts from the line while tallying six aces and four kills, and Kendall Guenther missed just one of 16 attempts serving while logging eight kills, five aces, and three blocks.
Ceinna Arelong was also perfect from the line, going 12 for 12. As a team, the Tigers tallied 17 aces.
Marti Smith said it was a great way for her six seniors — Neela Haywood, McKenna Smith, Logan Baker, Sprague, Erickson, and Shannon Taylor — to go out in their final home outing.
“It was a great moment for these girls who have been working hard for four years,” Smith said.
The Tigers (7-7, 4-4 2A EvCo) will wrap up its regular season next week, when it faces Tumwater on Monday and Shelton on Wednesday.
