EPHRATA — A strong start allowed the Tigers to handle business against East Valley (Yakima) on Tuesday night, sweeping the visiting Red Devils to improve to 9-3 on the season and 7-1 in the Central Washington Athletic Conference.

“Getting a big lead in the beginning of sets is always a big deal,” Ephrata senior Addison Mills said. “So you can get people on the bench in, and you can do a lot more when you get a strong start.”

Ephrata held the height advantage over East Valley, headlined by Mills and junior Addyson Hines — both of which are listed at six-foot-one – on the front line blocking spikes and securing kills for the Tigers. With Ephrata’s lineup back to full strength, the Tigers were able to jump out to an early 6-0 lead in the first set.

“We had a couple people out injury-wise, and then we had a bunch of people out sick — we’re kind of putting things back together,” Ephrata coach Britney MacLeod said. “Mixed up lineups a little bit, and now we’re feeling like we can solidify who’s supposed to be where.”

The fast start carried on throughout the first set, with the Tigers taking a 1-0 lead in the match on a kill by junior Sienna Addink to end the set 25-10.

“We gameplan with the specific intention of ‘Here’s where we’re going to put a ball on this point,’ and they did exactly what they’re supposed to do,” MacLeod said. “We had a couple miscues connection-wise, but they’re adjusting and progressing well at this point in the season.”

East Valley found a spark of its own to begin the second set, going up 7-3 through the first 10 rallies. MacLeod said the Tigers took it upon themselves on the court to slow down the Red Devil momentum, rallying to tie the game at seven. The two squads were tied at 11, 12 and 13 before the Tigers began to pull away, winning the set 25-18.

Two of Ephrata’s final three points came off of kills by senior Natania Vela.

“We talk a lot about accountability and the feedback that they give each other,” MacLeod said. “We’ve been talking a lot about things that have to get done in order for us to succeed – and they have their own conversation and got after it. It wasn’t me holding them to the fire, which is nice, and that they held each other accountable.”

While the Red Devils had a handful of momentum swings in the middle and towards the end of the final set, Ephrata stomped out any attempted comeback bids to walk away with a 25-13 win in the final frame, sweeping East Valley for the second time this season.

“We put a ball away, it kind of gets a little bit of a spark,” MacLeod said. “We’ve been able to utilize that a little bit more. In the early season, they didn’t really recognize that that’s a huge gamechanger; now, they’re able to say ‘That’s exactly what we needed to go on the next five-point run.’”

With four games remaining in the regular season, MacLeod said she hopes to see the offense increase its tempo down the stretch.

“We need to execute faster,” MacLeod said. “We get to long matches, long rallies, and that gasses us a bit. They just need to identify that they can do their job faster, and they need to go for it. Sometimes we hesitate, and that burns us a bit.”

Ephrata stands in second place of the CWAC according to the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association, just ahead of Selah (7-2 in CWAC). The Tigers travel to Grandview on Tuesday.

“These next four games we can’t have in our heads that ‘We’re already in districts, we’ve already qualified,’” Mills said. “We have to be able to know that we have to win these four games and stick with it.”

Box score

EV: 10-18-13 1

EPH: 25-25-25 3