After taking the first two sets against Shelton at home on Thursday, W.F. West was in danger of being reverse swept. The Highclimbers had all the momentum entering the fifth and final set after winning the previous two to extend the game.
W.F. West coach Tiffany Alvarado didn’t focus on specific adjustments in the team huddle, though. Instead, she hammered home a single phrase.
“I just had to tell them to trust themselves and trust their skills,” Alvarado said. “It started to pull them out of that hole a little bit.”
The Bearcats got out of that hole in the fifth set and came away with the victory, thwarting Shelton’s comeback attempt in a 25-23, 25-20, 23-25, 22-25, 15-11 victory.
It’s W.F. West’s first EvCo win of the season.
“They trusted each other, and they trusted themselves,” Alvarado said. “We’re just really proud that they pushed through.”
A pair of service runs in the first and second set helped W.F. West build a lead in both sets, and the Bearcats’ front row did an excellent job of mixing up their attack, both with how hard they sent the ball over the net and where they chose to put it down.
Specifically, there were a number of tips that caught the Shelton block off guard, which led to some key points down the stretch of both sets.
“Shelton has a great block, and they were blocking a lot of our middle stuff,” Alvarado said. “We had to find new ways to score.”
That continued into the third and fourth set, but some unforced errors allowed Shelton to build a lead of its own in the third set and comeback from a 20-18 deficit in the fourth.
Alvarado chalked up some of the errors to fatigue, as the Bearcats are dealing with some injuries that are limiting their numbers.
That led to the timeout before the fifth set, where Alvarado’s group caught a breath and heard Alvarado’s reminder.
“They just needed to clean up some of the errors, and I think they did that,” Alvarado said.
Official stats were not available at the time of writing, but they will be added to this article when they are made available.
W.F. West (5-3, 1-1 2A EvCo) will look to pick up another victory on Tuesday, when it heads to Centralia for a rivalry matchup with the Tigers. After that, the Bearcats will cap the week by hosting Aberdeen on Thursday.
“I just want these girls to trust their skills and know that they can do this,” Alvarado said. “They’re a tough team, and they just have to push through to the end. I know that they’ll have a successful season if they continue doing that.”
