The Centralia Tigers fought hard to dig out of the hole they were in on Thursday against Shelton, but their comeback attempt fell just short as Shelton won 25-13, 25-17, 18-25, 13-25, 15-13.
We definitely felt that we were gonna get that reverse sweep,” Centralia coach Marti Smith said. “Especially how we played in that fourth set. We had all the momentum … It could have gone either way.”
The Tigers held leads of 12-10 and 13-12 late in the fifth set, but Shelton scored the final three points of the set to hold on for the win.
Smith said that the story of the night was unforced errors, as the Tigers tallied more than 50 between attacking errors (26), service errors (8), and serve receive errors (19).
“That’s a lot of points we left out there,” Smith said. “I don’t want to take away the fight that the girls have … It’s just really tough, because you sight do hard to get back to that fifth set, and then have it go the way it did.”
McKenna Smith put together a stellar all-around game, tallying 22 digs, 22 assists, 11 kills (with no hitting errors), four aces, and two blocks. Mikaela Marazita logged 13 digs, six kills, and four blocks, while Makenzie Erickson added 19 digs.
Brooklyn Sprague recorded 12 digs and six kills while going a perfect 17 for 17 from the service line, while Hollynn Wakefield added six kills and three aces and Payton Baumel added four blocks and two block assists.
Smith said that it was a bittersweet feeling coming back and falling short, but she also noted that they’ll need to turn it around quickly.
“We need to let this sting a little bit,” Smith said. “We have to let the loss as a whole hurt a little bit so that way we can grow and be better come practice on Monday.”
After Monday’s practice, the Tigers (2-3, 0-1 2A EvCo) will host Aberdeen on Tuesday.
