Images from a preseason volleyball match between Centralia College and Yakima Valley Community College at Michael Smith Gymnasium in Centralia on Friday, Aug. 24, 2018.
Images from a preseason volleyball match between Centralia College and Yakima Valley Community College at Michael Smith Gymnasium in Centralia on Friday, Aug. 24, 2018.
Images from a preseason volleyball match between Centralia College and Yakima Valley Community College at Michael Smith Gymnasium in Centralia on Friday, Aug. 24, 2018.
Images from a preseason volleyball match between Centralia College and Yakima Valley Community College at Michael Smith Gymnasium in Centralia on Friday, Aug. 24, 2018.
Images from a preseason volleyball match between Centralia College and Yakima Valley Community College at Michael Smith Gymnasium in Centralia on Friday, Aug. 24, 2018.
Images from a preseason volleyball match between Centralia College and Yakima Valley Community College at Michael Smith Gymnasium in Centralia on Friday, Aug. 24, 2018.
Images from a preseason volleyball match between Centralia College and Yakima Valley Community College at Michael Smith Gymnasium in Centralia on Friday, Aug. 24, 2018.
Images from a preseason volleyball match between Centralia College and Yakima Valley Community College at Michael Smith Gymnasium in Centralia on Friday, Aug. 24, 2018.
Images from a preseason volleyball match between Centralia College and Yakima Valley Community College at Michael Smith Gymnasium in Centralia on Friday, Aug. 24, 2018.
Images from a preseason volleyball match between Centralia College and Yakima Valley Community College at Michael Smith Gymnasium in Centralia on Friday, Aug. 24, 2018.
Images from a preseason volleyball match between Centralia College and Yakima Valley Community College at Michael Smith Gymnasium in Centralia on Friday, Aug. 24, 2018.
Images from a preseason volleyball match between Centralia College and Yakima Valley Community College at Michael Smith Gymnasium in Centralia on Friday, Aug. 24, 2018.
Yakima Valley showed up late to Centralia College volleyball’s opening game, but once the Yaks were on the court, there was no slowing them down as Yakima Valley swept Centralia 3-0 in an NWAC volleyball match.
Centralia led early in the first set but Yakima Valley came from behind and won 25-19. The Lady Blazers again led in the second set, but Yakima Valley charged back and won the set in extra points, 28-26.
The third set was all Yakima Valley, sealing the match with a 25-16 win.
After the match, head coach Susan Gordon said she saw what she wanted to from her players, but that the defense needs to improve quickly.
“Offensively, we played very well. Defensively, passing wise, we have a lot of work,” Gordon said. “We’re swinging at balls, we’re over passing balls, we’re keeping our center way too far off the net so she can’t get to run our offense very often. With the offense that we have, we have to do a better job of passing. Our serve/receive stunk it up.”
Gordon noted the play of sophomore Autumn Durand, but also said that certain freshman showed some nerves in their first college game.
“She (Durand) looked good, we had a lot of freshman in a couple key places. We had two freshman in some key places that were really nervous at the very beginning,” Gordon said. “I think they kind of settled down towards the end but not all the way.”
With a lot of freshman coming in from nearby schools, they’ve had to do some adjusting to playing with each other instead of against each other.
“There’s a lot of kids that have played together on this team and even though we have four sophomores, they’re not necessarily all out on the court at the same time and so it’s a lot of freshman learning to play with each other all over again,” Gordon said.
The Lady Blazers head south to Springfield, Ore., for the NWAC Volleyball Showcase this weekend. Centralia begins Saturday by facing Mt. Hood at 9 a.m., followed by playing against Whatcom at 10:15 a.m. The Lady Blazers come back in the afternoon on Saturday and face Spokane at 2 p.m. and takes on Shoreline at 4:30 p.m. to wrap up the Saturday Showcase.
On Sunday, Centralia begins the day against Clark at 10:15 a.m., then faces Walla Walla at 12:45 p.m. to wrap up the volleyball showcase.
Gordon is hoping her team can shake off the match against Yakima Valley and play some solid volleyball over the weekend.
“I want to see how we’re going to regroup, how we’re going to take this and learn from it,” Gordon said. “It just all comes back down to passing. We have to become a better passing team.”
