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SAN MARCOS -- Sometimes experience is everything.
The Centerville Lady Tigers rolled into their first state tournament with a perfect 47-0 record, but waiting for them in the Class 2A semifinals were the Poth Pirettes, the three-time defending state champions who are on an incredible four-year playoff run.
After dropping a heartbreaker in the opening game, Centerville suffered a small letdown, and Poth took control to win 31-29, 25-14, 25-15 for the Pirettes 23rd straight playoff victory.
"That's the experience of Poth and our inexperience," Centerville coach Jason Evans said. "It was a tough first game, and I knew it would take some tenacity for whoever lost it to come back. We fell down early in Game 2, and we played with them the rest of the way, but we couldn't dig ourselves out of it."
Poth advances to the state championship match for the fifth straight year, where it will face Bushland -- a four-game winner over Big Sandy Harmony -- at 11 a.m. Saturday.
Centerville got six kills and three blocks apiece from senior Ashley Hardcastle and sophomore Leanne Jones, but the Lady Tigers hit just .020 as a team. Bay Lofton and Hardcastle anchored the back-row defense with 14 and 10 digs, respectively.
The Pirettes (37-8) and Lady Tigers fought tooth-and-nail in the opening game.
Both teams appeared nervous and tentative in the early going, which led to the first five points being decided by errors.
Centerville settled down first and built a 12-9 lead -- the largest cushion either team enjoyed the entire game -- but Poth immediately fought back with three straight points of its own to tie the game.
There were 23 ties and 11 lead changes before the game was decided, and Centerville was a point away from taking it on two occasions. But the Pirettes got the ball to LSU-bound senior Lauren Waclawczyk both times, and she came up with kills from the middle to even the game. Poth finally won Game 1 on its fifth game point.
Poth built an 11-2 lead in Game 2 and maintained at least a six-point lead en route to clinching the game.
In Game 3, Centerville's Cody Hamontree converted a kill to give the Lady Tigers a 7-6 lead, but Poth rebounded and took the lead for good.
"After [Poth] won the first game, they got into their offense and started taking away what we like to do on offense," Evans said. "We have two middle blockers who have kind of been our go-to players, and I think [Poth's] blocking got them a little rattled. You have to give Poth credit. They're a great ball club."
Despite the loss, Evans had only good things to say about Centerville's first team in any sport to make the state tournament.
"It was a unbelievable season," he said. "To go all the way to state without losing a match was pretty remarkable. We came into the season with getting here as our goal. We played 20 matches in the first couple weeks of the season and were hoping to come out of it 17-3 or 16-4. When we were 20-0, we thought we'd have a chance to go a long way."
