Central volleyball season ends at hands of Hillsboro

After losing the first game by just two points, it appeared that fifth-seeded Central might be able to knock off fourth-seeded Hillsboro to advance to the semifinals of the Class 4 Disrict 1 volleyball tournament Monday at Jackson High School.

But the Tigers (5-25-1) fell apart during the second set and their season ended with a 25-23, 25-10 loss to the Hawks.

"They gave a lot of effort and finished well as far as effort, but I think they lost confidence and lost faith in the second game," Central coach Angela Womack said. "Tried hard the first game, but I think we just kind of fell apart mentally the second game."

Serve and serve receive weren't the Tigers' strong suits in the second set. Central had four serve errors and Hillsboro had four serve aces.

"That's focus and just not having confidence back there, and I think they let the nerves get to them instead of just focusing back there," Womack said. "Because they serve 50 times a day in practice, so it's just one of those things where it's just all mental back there and they just struggled."

The Tigers were led by Bailey Manley with seven kills. Jasmine Scott had five digs and Kassidy Pannier had 10 assists.