SHADYSIDE’S Gentry Brown goes up for a kill as Linsly’s Ava Gainer attempts to block during Tuesday’s match inside the Tiger Den at Shadyside High School. The Tigers won in three sets.

SHADYSIDE — It’s getting to that point in the volleyball season where coaches are wanting to see their teams start to put things all together toward a peak.

Count Shadyside head coach Eric Mercer among those coaches.

And his Tigers showed on Tuesday evening that they’re on the right path as they swept invading Linsly by scores of 25-21, 25-15 and 25-17.

“Linsly played us tough when we played over there and their ball control was very good as it typically is, but they struggled with some unforced errors and we were able to take advantage of them,” Mercer said.

The win is the ninth in 14th starts for the Tigers, who were returning to action for the first time since dropping a five-set decision to Shenandoah last Thursday.

“We’re getting into crunch time of the season now, and we need to continue to (play) clean,” Mercer said. “We need to be peaking and not starting to back off like we can win matches without trying. It’s good to play a team that’s fundamentally sound (like Linsly) because it makes you work.”

The Tigers had to work in the first and third sets, especially. However, it each time it seemed like the Cadet were gaining a little traction, they either hit the ball out of bounds or into the net on a serve. If those unforced errors didn’t occur, junior standout Gentry Brown and senior hitter Paige Gorby delivered a kill to thwart the momentum.

“We missed too many serves and the things that we can control are what we really struggled with,” Linsly head coach Ashlee Jividen said.

Shadyside was led on the stat sheet by Brown, who posted a match-high 13 kills. She also had five assists and two blocks. Gorby was impressive with seven kills, four digs and three aces.

Senior Caroline Mercer posted another solid night of distributing the ball. She had 25 assists and two kills. Sophomore Macy Hendershot had five aces, four kills, two digs and two blocks.

The Cadets, meanwhile, were led by Avery Sekulovic, who had seven kills. Dany Gainer had 16 assists