Lady Tigers keep the gold in Centerville

Lady Tiger libero Taylor Cumming (3) hits the floor to save an opponent’s kill as Madison Taylor (#21) watches. Sherry’s Shots The Lady Tigers hosted the Centerville Extravaganza on August 27th an August 29th and brought home the gold by defeating the Mexia Ladycats in the finals on Saturday. There were 16 teams in the tournament including Buffalo, Normangee, and Oakwood. The Tigers won 3 games on Friday to win their pool and get into the championship bracket.

The Tigers defeated Madisonville 25-13, 25-8 and Fairfield 25-19, 25-13 on Saturday to advance to the finals against the Mexia Ladycats. The championship game started at 6:30p.m. Saturday and was an exciting match. The Tigers started slowly and fell behind 6-10 and further behind at 12-17 when Coach Crafton called time out to regroup. Whatever Crafton said worked as the Tigers rallied to pull even at 19-19 before pulling away and won 25-21.

Star spiker Leanne Jones goes high for a kill. Sherry’s Shots The second game was similar to the first as the Tigers fell behind 13-18 before catching the Ladycats at 20- 20. The Tigers went on a 5-1 run and won again by a 25-21 margin.

In both games the Tigers fell behind but did not panic but kept their composure and persevered. The Tigers haven’t been tested too much this season and they responded to the challenge.

In earlier action on August 25 in Centerville the varsity defeated the Crawford Lady Pirates 25-7, 25-15, and 25-18. Both Centerville junior varsity teams defeated Crawford also. The junior varsity has so many players they split into two teams. The junior varsity “B” team sprinted to a 16-8 advantage in the first game and won 25- 15. The 2nd game mirrored the first as the Tigers had an 18-8 margin before winning 25-12. The junior varsity “A” team had a 19-10 advantage in the first game and closed out the pirates 25-13. The second game was a carbon copy of the first as the Tigers won easily 25-11.

Not to be shown up by the junior varsity, the Tiger varsity jumped to a 5-0 lead and was never threatened as they won the first game 25-7. The second game was closer as the Tigers had a slender 2 point margin at 17-15 before scoring 8 unanswered points and winning 25- 15. The 3rd contest was equally tight for a while as the Tigers led 18-16 before winning 25-18.

For the tournament, Leanne Jones had 44 Kills, 11 Blocks, 1 Dig and 5 Aces, followed by Jill Griffin (13 Ks, 9 Ds, 2 ACEs, 1 Assist); Sarah Mutschler (26 Ks, 4 Bs, 2 Ds, 3 ACEs, 39 ASTs); Raimey Griffin (9 Ks, 17 Ds, 3 ACEs, 1 AST); Taylor Sullivan (11 Ds, 5 ACEs, 46 ASTs); Christy Wellman (9 Ks, 12 Bs, 3 ACEs,), Alexia Scarbrough (2 Bs, 2 ASTs), Kelsey Lagrone (15 Ds, 6 ACEs); Brittany Thomas (2 Ks, 1 D, 1 AST)

.The Lady Tigers travel to Onalaska on September 1 to open district play and travel to Bruceville-Eddy on September 4th for a nondistrict game.