SANFORD — Centauri volleyball visited their neighbor to the east, Sanford on Tuesday night. The visitors took the meeting by a score of three sets to one.

Centauri (11-7) has been fighting as of late. Prior to Sanford, the Falcons have won four of their last six and those two losses were wars of attrition that Centauri took to five sets. With the regular season winding down the Falcons are resting comfortably in the 26th spot in the unofficial CHSAA RPI rankings in a pool of what figures to be the top 36 teams.

Sanford (11-5) has had a similar run recently, building a four game win streak before meeting heavy hitters Alamosa (22-0) and Del Norte (18-1). But since then Sanford has built another streak of three wins in a row entering Tuesday’s contest. Before the game is entered into the RPI machine Sanford still lays claim to home court advantage in the No. 11 spot, holding a .002 of a point’s advantage over 12th place Akron.

Before the action got underway, as one of the final home games Sanford took the time to honor the parents of their players. Then Sanford's players took a moment to recognize anyone who’d been affected by breast cancer for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Sanford opened play with the serve but the first set would not be decided by any one rally as both teams fought for every point. With a 9-5 lead after forcing a side out Sanford’s Karley Caldon collected three aces on a 6-point rally. On Centauri’s ensuing serve the Falcons engineered a 5 point run and cut the lead to four points.

Forcing side-outs and making the most of their time at the service line, Centauri was able to close the distance to a 22-22 game. Despite being held to side-out points on their last four at-serves, Sanford came up big with a side out and a point from the service line to reach the match point. Lauren Canty forced a side out to Sanford to close the set 25-23.

The second set stayed close with the two teams tying at 4 and 9 points. The Falcons would slowly out pace Sanford to a 17-13 game where they rattled off four straight to take a commanding 21-13 game. Keeping Sanford to side-out points, Centauri finished off set number two 25-15 with an attack from junior Dynae Johnson to even the match at a set a piece.

The third set Centauri remembered their place in the food chain, they were the 3A team, Sanford was the 2A team. What followed was a show of force from the visiting Falcons. A seven point run made it 7-1. Followed by 5 on their next two at-serves. With a 12-4 lead Centauri broke the set wide open with 11 unanswered points to declare a 23-4 lead. A kill from Centauri senior Kaitlynn Martin cemented set three for the Falcons at 25-6. Sanford was kept uncharacteristically silent all set long, the 6 points they collected were all from side-outs. 

In the fourth set Sanford picked up some productive rallies early to go up 14-8. That was when the Falcons began to assert themselves. After forcing a side-out the Falcons ripped off nine straight to take an 18-14 lead. While Sanford was able to close the gap and keep things close, the Falcons continued to set the pace and senior Madison Sowards ended the night 25-23 to give Centauri a 3-1 win.

Centauri will look to keep building when they head home for a match against Gunnison (6-9) on Oct. 23. Sanford will get an opportunity to clear their palette when they go north to Center to face the Vikings (2-17) Oct. 18.