In every match this season, the Black Hills High School volleyball team has gotten to either a fourth or fifth set. They’re used to the length of matches and it paid off on Thursday night.
The Wolves completed the reverse sweep to stun Centralia 22-25, 23-25, 25-22, 25-18, 15-7 in an Evergreen Conference thriller on Ron Brown Court. It marks the fifth time overall Black Hills (3-5, 1-1 EvCo) went the distance and both league bouts went five.
“Have to give Black Hills credit; it came down to stamina,” Tigers head coach Marti Smith said. “We started making mistakes we weren’t making (all night). Almost like we were trying to create too much.”
Centralia (4-4, 1-1) came out on top in the first two sets thanks to some clutch points at the end. Ryleigh Butler, Brooklyn Sprague and McKenna Smith all finished with seven kills each while Sprague, Butler and Makenzie Erickson combined for seven aces and only missed two serves.
Sprague and Erickson posted 20-plus digs while Smith and Neela Haywood chipped in 19 and 15 digs, respectively. Centralia heads to W.F. West and Black Hills takes on Tumwater in a pair of county rivalries on Tuesday.
“We proved to ourselves we can hang with them,” Coach Smith said. “We just have to figure out a way to shut the door. We need to be more aggressive.”
