The Lady Panthers were on the attack on Tuesday at home.

Centralia won its third match of the season and third in four matches with its sweep of Bowling Green (25-11, 25-18, 25-20). The Lady Panthers only missed three serves all night.

Head coach Julie Crum said serving succes fluctuates in volleyball and was glad to see Centralia (3-10-1) have a good night on Tuesday.

Centralia vs Bowling Green Photo Gallery

"Our attacking was better today," Crum said. "When we can attack and we can serve well, we win. Those are two important components to successfully competing in volleyball."

Ryenn Gordon finished with 11 kills and 10 digs, Madilynn Hunter had four kills, eight digs and three service aces, Blakely Sowers finished with five kills, Becca Erisman had four kills and Liz Romine had nine digs. 

Crum said Centralia has played several schools with strong serving. The Lady Panthers started this season 0-9-1 through a stretch where it played seven schools currently with winning records and district foe Southern Boone, who is around .500 but won Centralia's district a season ago.

"We've been working on our mental toughness a lot," Crum said. "It makes it tougher when you're playing againsta team who has strong servers, and we're struggling to receive them and play something out."

Crum said it is tougher to find a rhythm during struggles against strong serving. She said this leads to weak hits back over the net instead of smooth passes that set up strong hits. 

Centralia cruised during the first set against Bowling Green (2-11-2) but encountered issues while passing in the second and third sets. Bowling Green tied the second set at 10 before the Lady Panthers broke away and Bowling Green went on a 7-2 run in the third set before Centralia took the final four points. 

"Good pass equals good set equals good hit," Crum said. "Bad pass equals bad set equals bad contact on the third one. There's no denying we've got strong outside and middle hitters. We can only utilize them when our passing is on."

Crum said Centralia is best when it is attacking with its hitters. The Lady Panthers have the seniors Hunter and Erisman and the junior Gordon leading that effort, and the freshman Sowers adds more power to the team's hitting.

In recent matches, Crum said Centralia has looked better. Even though the Lady Panthers didn't win a match during the Fulton tournament on Sept. 13, she said Centralia's play was "awesome" against Southern Boone and North Callaway, California and Fatima, who are all now double-digit winning teams. Centralia lost three matches and earned a split with North Callaway.

"They were moving really well on defense without the ball," Crum said. "They had perfect serve receives, perfect setting and perfect attacks. All of the pieces have to be together in the same place at the same time. That's what makes volleyball do much more challenging. Three people tough it every time."

Crum said there could be 1,000 contacts with the ball depending on how many sets are played, which means there's plenty of room for error. She said Centralia had 816 contacts in a game last week, when the Lady Panthers defeated Wright City in four sets and New Bloomfield in three sets.

"We've got lots of talent this year," Crum said. "We're trying to pull the mental side and mesh it well with our physical skills. Once those two things are clicking together at 100 percent, we're going to be tough to beat."

Centralia hosts Linn (6-5-1) at 7 p.m. Thursday.