Thursday's Prep Volleyball: Centralia Sweeps W.F. West, Earns Third Place in League

Centralia and W.F. West played on Thursday night with third place on the line, and the Tigers mauled the Bearcats 3-0 in an Evergreen 2A Conference volleyball match in Centralia.

“You just never know how things are going to go in a rivalry game and they’ve improved so much over the past couple years. We felt like we could beat them, this is the 20th time we’ve done it in the last 11 years during my career here, it feels great,” Centralia coach Neil Sharp said. “They know how to win, our real goal was to get that third seed. We really wanted to be the third seed after beating Black Hills last week and they finished second. We really think we’re one of the top teams in the league. The girls wanted to prove that tonight.”

The Tigers cruised in the first set 25-21. The second set was close to start, with the Bearcats building a lead midway through the second set. But Centralia went on a 6-1 run at the end of the set to win 25-22. It was all Tigers in the third set, jumping out to a 5-0 lead and going on another late set run to win 25-18.

“We felt like we could control the match if we did what we’ve been working on and do what we needed to do,” Sharp said. “I think we just had a little bit more urgency like, oh, they might beat us if we don’t keep our foot on the gas.”

Centralia’s McKenna Smith led the team with 12 kills. Kylie Sharp added 16 digs and Rachel Wilkerson and Chelsea Petrino each had 12 digs. Joelle Mettler recorded a team-high 24 assists.

W.F. West’s Ashlee Vadala recorded 11 kills and 14 digs. Megan Pallas served 16 of 16 and Haley Simmons added 17 assists.

“We didn’t play our best. We made a lot of unforced errors. Our season’s not over,” W.F. West coach Emily Mora said. “The big question I asked, how are we going to get better? We’re experts at reflection and making changes on the court and we’ll be better on Monday.”

It was senior night for Petrino, Mettler, Wilkerson, Smith and Jessica Wu. It was Sharp’s final home game as coach, with many former players coming to the game. But Sharp made sure the night was about his senior class.

“Tonight, it was about the seniors and how hard they’ve worked and how important they are to our team,” Sharp said. “They’ve been great role models and leaders for us this season. If we had 35 girls like that in our program, we’d be a pretty darn good program.”

Centralia (17-7, 6-4 league) will start the district tournament next Thursday, facing Ridgefield at 4 pm. at Black Hills High School in Tumwater. W.F. West (7-7, 5-5 league) will play a pigtail game on Monday at 7 p.m., hosting Hockinson in a loser out, winner to districts game.

Mossyrock Takes League Title With Victory Over Kalama

By The Chronicle

MOSSYROCK — The Vikings ended the regular season with a 3-0 win over Kalama in a Central 2B League volleyball match here on Thursday to earn the league title.

Mossyrock finished the season 10-0 in league play and will host the opening two rounds of the District tournament, facing No. 9 seed Toledo at 10 a.m. on Saturday to start the tournament.

“It’s great, it’s pretty exciting. We play against some pretty good teams,” Mossyrock coach Alex Nelson said. “Kalama is a great team, they had some rebuilding but they were very competitive. Napavine is always a competitive game. It’s good to be on top of such great opponents. It says a lot about our team and we have a great group of girls.”

The Vikings took set one 25-17, and earned set two 25-15. The third set needed extra points, but Mossyrock prevailed 29-27.

Stephanie Fried had 12 kills, seven kills and served 8 of 9, and Andee Nelson served 12 of 12 to go along with nine digs and seven kills.

Ava Nelson served 21 of 23 with eight aces and 32 assists, Paige Moorcroft served 12 of 12 with nine kills and just one hitting error and Jamie Carlson tallied 14 digs and played well in serve/receive.

“We had some slow starts but we stayed in it. At the end of the first and second, they did a good job of finishing,” Nelson said. “Our serving and our serve/receive, those people passing stepped up in key situations, which sometimes we struggle with. We had great passing from Jamie Carlson and the girls did a good job putting away that third set. It didn’t come easy, Kalama’s a good team.”

Rochester Tops Aberdeen in Season Finale

ROCHESTER — The Warriors battled with Aberdeen for five sets, and Rochester prevailed 3-2 in an Evergreen 2A Conference volleyball match here on Thursday.

Aberdeen took set one 25-19. Rochester bounced back and won set two 25-19 and earned set three 25-20. The Bobcats tied the match with a 25-18 fourth set win. Rochester rallied in the fifth set for a 15-10 win to take the match.

Paige Winter had 15 kills and three stuff blocks and Marissa Rigsbee added 26 assists. Britney Rogers recorded 10 kills and 13 digs and Emily Morris tallied seven kills for the Warriors.

“It came down to who made the least amount of errors. It was a good game to watch, we got it done when we needed to,” Rochester coach Wendy Hawes said. “We lost the first time we played them. It was nice to end the season on a good win, Aberdeen’s a tough opponent.”

It was the final volleyball game in the prep careers for Rochester’s Rigsbee and Rogers.

Rochester finishes the season 4-12 overall and 1-9 in league matches.