HS Volleyball: Centralia squeezes our 3-2 win over Shelton

10/14/2025

Centralia 3, Shelton 2 (19-25, 25-18, 23-25, 25-20, 15-11)

(Centralia, WA) Tuesday night finished the 1st round of EVCO 2A league match-ups and Centralia hosted Shelton. The Highclimbers came in with a 3-1 league mark in 2nd place and 7-4 overall. Centralia was in a 3-way tie for 3rd at 1-3 and 4-6 on the year.

In the opening set the 2 teams battled back and forth with 8 ties from 1-1 to 18-18. It was at that time the Highclimbers went on a run behind the serving of Malia Carmichael who fired off 6 straight points to push the score to set point. Kaedince Garlinghouse came up with a big block in that run and a big spike from Alexa Davidson.

Brooklyn Sprague then served for the Centralia and Garlinghouse finished off the set with a perfect deep corner return shot to win the set 25-19 taking a 1-0 lead.

The Tigers would answer in the 2nd set and opened up a lead when Mckenna Smith fired off 4 points with a pair of aces to push the Centralia lead to 10-5. Centralia never let the ‘Climbers get close again always keeping a 4-8 point lead finishing off and evening the match with a 25-18 win.

The 3rd set looked like a runaway for Shelton as they pushed their lead to 22-13. Centralia’s Makenzie Erickson would then start running off point after point with help from Ryleigh Butler, Kendyl Guenther and Ceinna Arelong at the net and fired off 8 straight points to tie the Highclimbers at 22-22.

Shelton would end that run and took the serve back with a 23-22 lead. Sofia Salmeri would then score a huge point sending it to set point 24-22. The Tigers battled back to win the next point and got the serve back trailing 23-24. Arelong would serve it but Garlinghouse came up with the set winning shot denying the complete Tiger comeback winning it 25-23 and taking a 2-1 lead.

Centralia then battled hard with Shelton in the 4th set with the key run beginning with Centralia leading 17-13 and Smith coming up with another big service run with aces and a block from Guenther to push the lead to 20-13. The ‘Climbers would get a couple points back but Centralia ran it out to a 25-20 win to force the 5th set.

With the score tied 8-8 it was a race to 15 and the Tigers pushed their lead to 11-8 with 2 points scored by Erickson. Alexa Davidson kept the Highclimbers in the game with an important kill shot.

Trailing 11-9 Shelton had a chance to cut into that deficit with Sofia Salmeri serving the two teams went back and forth in a stunning rally but the Tiger’s got the last word when Butler returned a blistering kill shot pushing the Tigers lead to 12-9. Arelong then served up an ace and Centralia would go on to finish the job with a 15-11 score winning the match 3-2.

Our Thorbeckes MVP went to Centralia’s Kendyl Guenther who had a fantastic night at the net. Mckenna Smith, Ryleigh Butler and Makenzie Erickson were all in the running for the award. Had the Highclimbers pulled off the win Cassandra Tyler, Kaedince Garlinghouse and Alexa davidson would have been the top considerations.

The Tigers improve to 2-3 in league play and 5-6 overall. Centralia will host Aberdeen on Thursday. Shelton drops to 3-2 and 7-5. The ‘Climbers will host Black Hills on Thursday.

Link to watch full match replay on the NFHS Network (subscription required)

Video Highlights

Shelton secures set 1 with a great drop shot